Touhou RPG: Mystery of the Great Rampage
by Kaiser dude
Summary: Not good with summaries, but here goes; A new character arrives in Gensokyo, but is assumed to be the cause of monster rampage and chaos of Gensokyo. An OC battles his way to learn about why there's chaos in Gensokyo. Discontinued due to lack of interest, and better things to focus my attention on... such as "Kidnapped"
1. Arrival in Gensokyo

DISCLAIMER: Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN), while Damion, my OC, belongs to me.

Genres include: Mystery, Action, Adventure, Supernatural (Touhou is already supernatural, so whatever), Occasional comedy, parody (combo attacks will have names that may be taken from other series, or parody of attacks. Still not a crossover story)

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><p>A long time ago in Gensokyo, the area was surrounded in a special border that many youkai migrate here to, with the occasional humans that pop in somehow. The border acted like a gate for outsiders to come into Gensokyo, but few have every made it out. It was called the Hakurei Border<p>

This is not the case for this story, as the residents of Gensokyo suddenly found themselves facing youkai and new monsters suddenly arriving to cause trouble. The new monsters were rampaging about, with one another and with youkai. Their reason for causing a ruckus is unknown; perhaps it's out of instinct and confusion. Either way, the story begins with a human that just appeared into Gensokyo via Hakurei Border.

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><p>A young man dropped down from the Hakurei Border and landed in the local shrine, the Hakurei Shrine. Unfortunately, he landed head-first and lost most of his memory in the process.<p>

Upon arrival in Gensokyo, Hakurei Shrine, the young man slowly recovered from the drop. The arrival caught the attention of some nearby shrine maidens and monks.

"Are you alright?" one of the shrine maidens asked the newcomer.

Damion, the young man, replied somewhat disorientedly, "I've been through worse and… wait, where am I?"

"This is the Hakurei Shrine in Gensokyo. Are you, perhaps, from the outside world?" one of the monks asked gently.

"'Outside world'? What are you talking… oh, wait! What are you saying?"

"This is Gensokyo, land of fantasy. It's a place isolated in Japan where youkai and humans try to coexist with one another" one of the monks answered.

"What is your name?" one shrine maiden asked.

"All I know about myself is the name, Damion" the young man answered.

"Damion, like the human name variant of demon?" one monk joked.

Without even realizing what was about to happen, Damion's body suddenly acted on its own in response to the joke. Damion's body reacted by putting up a fighting stance, and thrust his right palm forward. The result was a small orb of darkness being shot at the monk.

"What the hell?" Damion said aloud as he realized what was going on.

The ball of darkness hit the joking monk and exploded in a small blast of darkness. The attack was weak, so not much damage was dealt.

"Darkness magic!" the shrine maidens and monks noted aloud.

"Uh, what's wrong with darkness magic?" Damion asked them.

"You are a being of evil for possessing that element of magic. Evil one, begone!" the shrine maidens and monks informed him before the maidens took out their gohei and monks began praying some prayer.

Damion, somewhat alerted to danger, ran into the shrine with the monks and shrine maidens following pursuit.

* * *

><p>In the shrine, Damion took a left into a building and practically locked himself inside. What Damion didn't realize was that there was one shrine maiden inside, and she was looking at Damion in confusion. This shrine maiden in particular had a big ribbon in the back of her head.<p>

"Um, why did you try to lock yourself inside here?" she asked the young man.

Damion jumped out of surprise (He didn't get a good look around the inside as he came in to hide from the other shrine maidens), and turned to face the shrine maiden.

"Damn it, another one? Why are the religious folks after me because of some magic element I forgot I had known to use!" Damion cursed as he undid the locks he set up to lock himself inside.

"What element would that be?" the shrine maiden with the big red ribbon asked him.

"They're calling it darkness, but I can't remember anything else beyond that! Seems like they want a fight, but it's been a while since I last fought" Damion responded.

"Actually, I was here fighting some persistent and aggressive rats that are relatively weak; they're eating the shrine's food supplies that are given to us as donations. Do you want to help? You might be able to remember something if you battle the rats, and perhaps knock some sense into my helpers and make them stop to listen to you" the shrine maiden offered.

"Sure, I hope I remember something about myself from a battle" Damion muttered softly before being led to the rats.

"Okay, I think you know how battles work, right? You fly around and shoot the enemies with your 'bullets'. Collect red boxes to increase…"

"… Uh, I don't think I've ever heard of that kind of battle. All I know how to battle is with melee and magic" Damion interrupted.

"Oh, like the kind in RPGs that some game companies make?" the shrine maiden asked.

"Sort of, except I only remembering saving a life once with my magic, and then leaving my friend in the care of the hospital to fully recover" Damion explained.

The shine maiden put an arm across the young man, and asked if he'd like to do battle with the rats that have been eating the shrine's food donations.

Damion replied, saying that distracting himself in battle might help him remember more about himself.

In the storage area part of the building, sure enough, small rats were almost littered across the ground and started to scurry out of the place, save for the more aggressive kinds.

The shrine maiden took out her gohei and began explaining the basics of melee and magic fighting. The young man, Damion, paid very close attention to remember the details.

The friendly shrine maiden used her gohei to smack the first aggressive rat, and demonstrate how fighting works through demonstration.

The attack was strong enough to take out the first rat in one hit.

Damion's turn came and he took action by attacking the second small rat with his fists. The attack sent the rat flying back, but it retreated after recovering.

"Some enemies might retreat after being weakened, but you can run to block their path if you're quick enough and prevent their escape" the friendly shrine maiden warned Damion.

"Thanks, I'll remember that" Damion nodded as he prepared himself for the next turn.

One of the remaining small rats ran up to the shrine maiden and tried to bite her, only for said shrine maiden to jump out of the way. Then came another rat's turn and it headed towards Damion. Damion, in response, dodged the rat's attempt to bite him and he countered with a kick to the rat's face. This was enough to kill that rat.

"Alright, taken three down, a few more to go" the shrine maiden said as she took her turn to whack one of the rats with her gohei. The hit knocked out the rat, and now the rats were starting to lose their aggressiveness after seeing their comrades being easily swept aside like nothing. The last remaining rats stopped being aggressive and fled the battle.

After the battle, Damion leveled up one level, and he remembered a few important things.

"Okay, now I remember a few things; how I was able to use that darkness magic, and one other that causes instant death sometimes" Damion said to the shrine maiden as he remembered things bit by bit.

"Death spell? Now I KNOW you are someone that is evil, but I'll give you a chance to prove you're not evil" the shrine maiden said in response. "Try to convince my helpers that you aren't evil by NOT using that death spell, and MAYBE I won't try to exorcise you"

"Fine, I'll take my chances on that bet. What else do you religious folks have against me anyway?"

"We believe your arrival might've been the reason why the monsters started pouring in and rampaging with the youkai. Perhaps the monsters are attacking while looking for you since you know that death spell" the shrine maiden explained.

"I just got here, and the monsters attacking is news to me in this world. Besides, don't most worlds have monsters of their own?"

"Monsters and youkai are different; monsters have little or no intellect or ability to communicate with us humans. Youkai are similar to monsters, but have the intellect and ability to communicate with humans. Don't put youkai and monsters on the same level. I'm just going to give you heads-up about that since you're new to Gensokyo"

"Wait, before we continue, what's your name?"

The shrine maiden bowed politely and apologized for neglecting to introduce herself. "My name is Hakurei Reimu; manager of the Hakurei Border and Hakurei Shrine. Now then, prove that you aren't evil by beating some sense into some of my disciples; they're quick to jump to conclusions anyway"

"Okay, but I'm not sure whether or not I'd accidentally kill them" Damion replied.

"Just do your best to NOT kill them while beating some sense into them" Reimu encouraged before she undid the locks to the building and shoved Damion outside.

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><p>Outside, Damion was ambushed by the shrine maidens chasing him as well as the monks.<p>

The first shrine maiden took out her gohei and ran up to Damion to smack him in the head once before jumping back.

The monk went next and threw what looked like a plastic frog at Damion, which exploded when it hit the ground below the young man.

Damion's turn came up and he used it to conjure up the spell he remembered, Death. From the ground, a grim reaper emerged and grabbed the shrine maiden, sapping all life energy and essentially speeding up the maiden's age so fast it's like forgoing instant aging until death. Then, the shrine maiden was dead and the grim reaper sank back down into the ground.

"I knew it, you are definitely evil for knowing such a vile, horrible spell" the monk said to Damion as he rushed to try and help the fallen shrine maiden.

Damion took this opportunity to try and flee the battle to escape to another part of the shrine where he could hide. Unfortunately, another shrine maiden took the place of the fallen one and blocked Damion's attempt to flee.

The stand-in shrine maiden took her turn and cast a spell of exorcism, Light magic. The spell cast a literal ray of light at Damion, dealing some damage to the young man. Ironically, the spell was very effective against the young man, so he was feeling the hurt badly.

Next up was the monk, and he rushed in close to attack Damion in close combat. Damion was parrying the blows, though failing to block some, and then the monk stopped to return to where he was before.

Damion used his turn to cast the darkness spell he remembered before. He shot a small orb of darkness out of his palm and shot it towards the shrine maiden. When it came in contact with the shrine maiden, it exploded in a blast of darkness, which was very effective against the female shrine assistant.

The shrine maiden used her turn to attack Damion the same way before, casting another weak light-element spell. She shot a ray of light at the young man, dealing quite a bit of damage.

The monk went next, and went in for another round of close combat. The results were like that of before; Damion couldn't block all of the attacks, so he took some damage.

Damion was now weak from the attacks, and he was showing it. Despite the low stamina, he pressed on and retaliated by shooting another ball of darkness from his palms at the shrine maiden. This time, the attack knocked out the shrine maiden.

"Curses, you fiend!" the monk cursed as he took his turn. This time, he used magical energy to encase himself in a shield of magic. This increased his magical defense.

Damion recognized the spell as 'Shell'. In response, Damion ran up to the monk and whacked him in the head once with his fist.

The monk was weakened from the hit due to his low physical defenses, but he responded by casting a spell on himself that healed some of the damage. It was 'Cure' spell.

Damion cussed a little for not anticipating this, and took his turn to whack the monk again. This time, it knocked out the monk.

After the battle, Damion leveled up and rested to restore his health and mana.

Suddenly, the shrine maiden that helped Damion before, Hakurei Reimu, applauded Damion, although somewhat disappointedly.

"I thought I told you not to kill anyone" Reimu said to Damion.

"I… I thought seeing that spell I remembered would help jog my memories, but it seems like it only killed someone. I could help do a burial or try …"

"No, I need to test you to see whether you did it on purpose or not; whether you're lying or not. Fight me, Damion!" Reimu interrupted.

"Give me a break! I'm still resting from that battle I just finished" Damion complained.

Damion couldn't get much rest as Reimu suddenly attacked Damion. Damion saw her coming at him, and he got up in time to dodge the attack.

"I need to determine whether you are truly evil, or if you learned those spells by accident" Reimu responded.

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><p>## It was now a battle, with Reimu ambushing Damion. She attacked him with her gohei, and hit because she was more battle-ready than Damion is. ##<p>

Damion was at half-full health by the time Reimu attacked, so it was kind of unfair. He retaliated by shooting a ball of darkness at Reimu. Fortunately, she wasn't fast enough to dodge it, so she took the hit. Reimu was weak to darkness this time around, due to being unprepared for the attack this time.

"I won't fall for that spell a second time around" Reimu declared as she took her turn. She cast the same light spell that the other shrine maidens used earlier, and this time on Damion.

Like before, Damion was weak to light magic and took a fair bit of damage.

In response to the attack, Damion remembered he could combo his attacks, even combine attacks to create a more powerful one, or both combine & combo.

"_Might as well give this a try_" Damion thought to himself as he began his turn. To start with, he conjured up darkness spheres in his hands and then crushed said orbs; his hands were now coated with dark magic. Damion then rushed up to the head shrine maiden and began attacking her at close quarters with close combat attacks (Mostly punches). Reimu was unable to defend herself from the combo, and fell back on the ground from her weakness to darkness, and the surprise 'Dark close combat' combo.

"I see you can infuse yourself in darkness and use it to enhance your attacks. I guess I'll have to try my own combo" Reimu declared as she got up to prepare for her attack.

Reimu, in response to the attack, moved like a ninja around Damion, shooting light magic at him. Essentially, rays of light magic came from all directions horizontally around Damion.

This combo, 'Circle of light', was enough to take down Damion. Damion was knocked out unconscious.

The battle came to an end immediately. Reimu picked up the unconscious Damion and took him to the building they were in before.

## End battle against Reimu ##

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><p>Sometime later, in the living room area of the building, Damion regained consciousness and bolted awake. The rest from being unconscious restored some of his health, but he needed to be healed with medicine OR magic.<p>

Reimu came in just as Damion woke up. Damion, still disoriented, tried to prepare himself for another battle.

"Calm down, now. I have to apologize for attacking you, but I had to know from battle whether you were evil or not" Reimu apologized.

In Reimu's hands were some rice balls and a small cup of sake.

"What are you scheming this time? Trying to lower my guard so you can knock me out again? That's quite underhanded, especially for a miko (Shrine maiden), attacking me while I was recovering from the battle I just finished with your 'disciples'" Damion replied, still on his guard.

"Here, eat these and drink some of this, and let's talk this out since I now understand that you might not be evil that I thought you were. Shall we try to clear this misunderstanding and start over?" Reimu offered.

Damion cautiously took one of the rice balls and began eating slowly; he pushed the small cup of sake back, saying he's against alcohol.

"Geez, just because I know a darkness spell and a spell that supposedly causes instant death, people of this world automatically assume I'm some killing machine or evil wizard out for destruction" Damion began the conversation.

"Sorry about attacking you without warning that time; I had to make sure you weren't evil or a 'killing machine' as you said. I've already talked with my disciples and told them to leave you alone. They should be convinced you aren't evil… for the time being anyway"

"Sorry, but I just got to this world, and I don't know what's going on"

"I only recently heard that monsters from other worlds started coming in from the Hakurei Border into Gensokyo and started causing trouble by rampaging, causing mischief, and generally harassing the humans and youkai that live here peacefully" Reimu explained.

"Monsters? Rampage? Other worlds? Hakurei Border?"

"I guess your state says that you aren't responsible for the outbreak then. That's another reason why I attacked you; it was to confirm whether or not you had control of those monsters or was the ringleader behind the chaos that suddenly hit Gensokyo. If you were responsible, you would've called some of the monsters for backup against me"

"I guess that makes sense"

"Anyway, the Hakurei Border exists above the Hakurei Shrine, and acts like a gate into Gensokyo. Youkai, monsters, and even humans come through the border from time to time, and it's kind of my responsibility to help them get used to Gensokyo"

"Sounds hard"

"Changing the topic, you did okay fighting me, and I guess you lacked support magic, otherwise the fight would've lasted longer"

"Support magic? Oh, like that barrier that monk used"

"Yeah. I can teach you some as my way of apologizing, though I have to ask you a favor in return"

"What favor would that be?"

"I need you to find Marisa Kirisame; she's a witch who's usually stealing something or flying around on her broom. Chances are she's noticed the rampaging monsters by now and has a lead to why the monsters are ruining the lives of humans and youkai"

"Alright, so where do you suppose she's at?"

"That's the thing I don't know. She could be running her magic shop, or at the Scarlet Mansion talking to Patchouli about valuables, or stealing from Rinnosuke's shop, or out practicing magic in the Forest of Magic. I suggest you ask around and get information from the people in town; they love to gossip and talk about each other"

"Alright, I'll ask around and find her"

"Thanks, now let's get you up to speed on some basic support magic.

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><p>## Practice battle against Reimu ##<p>

"Let's teach you the most important one first; healing magic. Focus the magical energy around you into a form of healing and apply that to yourself. It's called 'Cure' by most people" Reimu explained as she demonstrated how the spell worked.

She made a small prayer and called upon the magic energy around her. The magic energy turned from neutral to healing, and engulfed the shrine maiden in said magic. Since she was already healthy, the magic didn't do much to heal her.

Damion began trying to learn the magic by imitating Reimu's actions. He focused hard, and managed to make the magic around him become that of healing. Damion's health increased a little bit due to the spell.

"Now then, the next one is similar to 'Cure' spell, but only gets rid of status ailments. It's called 'Esuna' in another world, according to Yukari Yakumo" Reimu explained as she demonstrated. What she did was something similar to the 'Cure' spell, but made the magic specialize in healing status ailments; a white glow around the body instead of green.

Damion repeated what Reimu taught him, and he learned the spell after five times. He accidentally focused the magic in healing instead of curing ailments, so it took him a while to tell the difference between ailment and healing.

"No, you need to focus on curing ailments, not healing. There's a difference; healing is restoration of health, curing ailments is to restore health to normal from other ailments" Reimu tried to explain. It took Damion five minutes to learn the difference, but he managed to get the basics down soon.

"The last spell I hope you know or learn is the 'Scan' spell. It's using magic to literally scan your opponents and learn about their battle specs. To do so, just focus your magic on heightening your senses like sight and insight about your target" Reimu explained as she demonstrated the skill.

Damion followed her instructions, and tried to use the spell he was being taught, and it worked on the second try; he had a hard time figuring out what to do the first time. Eventually, when he used 'Scan' on Reimu, he began to start seeing info about her; including battle level, magic she knew, resistances, weaknesses, immunities, elements and spells that she repels, and various other bits that are irrelevant like interests and dislikes.

"That was… a very informative spell. Might as well remember this in case I come across tough enemies" Damion replied, somewhat hesitant about answering.

"So, what did you learn from using that spell?"

"Resistances, immunities, spells that you knew, overdrives, and information that is too much info that a spell should give"

"Info like what?"

"I'd rather not say; it'll get me killed just for knowing it"

"Wait, the spell even tells private information like the 'Three Sizes' or ideal person!" Reimu asked in surprise.

"The first of what you said came in when I used the spell, but there was no 'ideal person' info. I hate to say it, but I really need to be careful about who I use the spell on" Damion tried to calm her down.

"You tell anyone those measurements and I will throw you back into the Border. Don't even think about me in that way" Reimu threatened.

"LIKE HELL I WOULD! I'M NOT INTERESTED IN ROMANCE!"

"And why aren't you interested in romance? It's one of the most important things to girls"

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><p>"If I get too close to someone, especially a woman, I fear they may try to extort more out of us guys than we can actually give; like money, or luxuries, or even using the powers we guys have for their own desires"<p>

"That's just being paranoid" Reimu assured him "_Then again, I can't say that Marisa and her thievery would help his case or paranoia_" she thought to herself.

"In some comics back in my home world, there's a famous saying that I hold true and great respect for because it is VERY much true, and that is 'With great power comes great responsibility'. I learned how important it was to keep one's powers a secret or used responsibly, because it was through experience that I learned that using my powers irresponsibly caused the death of some close friends"

"I'm sorry to hear that"

"The situation was a separate issue as to what really happened; my home world was so unstable that the 'game' one god set up to find a successor was arranged… it's a VERY long story. I'm just going to give you the short version: I was created by a god to be a contender in a 'game' the god set up with 12 other human contestants to compete to be the successor to the god's throne and powers. The instability of the world was unknown to us at the time of beginning of the game, but we learned about it late in the game when most of the contestants were 'eliminated' literally" Damion began.

"Eliminated? You mean like killed?"

"More than that; it's more like wiped out from existence altogether"

"That's horrible"

"I know, but at the end of the 'game', I had to make a choice to erase my friends from existence, who were also contestants in the game, and try to restore stability, or be wiped from existence and whatever the winner chose would happen"

"So you chose to abandon your friends?"

"Not quite, and this is the most important part… After I eliminated my friends, I vowed to reverse time and try to restore stability to the world, but I was told by the god that the course of action I planned was something the god already tried, but failed to do with no progress made. I gave up on my friends and decided to move on after hearing the results the god told me. I regret not being able to help my friends, but I know I'm not responsible because the problem was way out of my control even if I won the 'game'. Long story short, I moved on and chose to obtain a power as my prize instead of becoming the successor to the god" Damion concluded.

"That's so sad" Reimu nearly cried.

"That's all I remember, thanks to this talk we had. My memories came rushing in during this talk. For that, I'm very thankful. What happened after that, I still need time to remember. Also, it means a lot for someone to hear my story" Damion thanked her.

"No, I'm moved by that, though what you did to your friends is still unacceptable"

"I KNOW, but it was either they try to do what I planned, and fail in the end, or it was move on knowing that there's nothing you can do to help them. If you were in my shoes during that crucial moment where you had to make two VERY difficult choices and was required to make one decision, it's pretty much a trap where either choice is morally wrong"

This caught Reimu off-guard as she realized her mistake.

"It's called the Heinz Dilemma. That is when you have to make a choice between two very painful choices in an 'evil' situation. The best example of such a dilemma is the story of a man with a sick wife in a poor village, and said wife is terminally ill with a rare type of cancer. The doctor that comes into town has the medicine, but will only sell it for ten times its actual worth. The dilemma is whether the man should try to STEAL the medicine, or ask the village for the money, thereby putting the village in deep debt or unable to maintain its economy; there is no option to let your wife die, as that will brand you as evil" Damion explained.

"So this dilemma…"

"Right. I was faced with it at the end of my time in my home world"

Reimu looked down sadly upon hearing this.

"You're quite strong for making that decision and moving on after that"

"The thing is, I don't remember what happened after that"

"I see"

The two of them remained silent for a while.

The silence was broken when a shrine maiden disciple arrived to bring bad news. "Reimu-sama, I hate to interrupt, but I needed to inform you that the monsters in town are headed their way up here to the shrine"

Reimu cursed the bad luck situation they're in, but apologized for the cuss later.

"Can you do me a favor and find my friend, Marisa Kirisame? Ask around town and hopefully someone might tell you where you can find her. I just hope she's learned something about those rampaging monsters by now" Reimu asked Damion.

"Why can't you go out there and find her yourself?"

"Because I need to protect the shrine"

"Fair enough; I'll be back, hopefully with some leads about, or with your friend" Damion promised.

Both of them nodded, and went their separate ways; Reimu to the front of the shrine to help defend it against the monsters, and Damion leaving the shrine on his quest.

* * *

><p>END OF CHAPTER<p>

(Author's Notes and tidbits you might want to know:

Not the best start, but I had to set up an introduction chapter. Important battles will be clearly indicated by borders. Damion's slight memory loss is intentional to help newcomers understand that he's not just a random character created on the spot. I WILL be borrowing magic system from Final Fantasy series as basic magic attacks for this Touhou RPG fanfic, but it's NOT a crossover since I'm not using any characters from the series. I might borrow elements like magic and overdrives, but it is NOT A CROSSOVER between Final Fantasy and Touhou. NOT INTENDED TO BE A CROSSOVER! I will, however, add in monsters commonly found in typical RPGs like trolls, rats, rare monsters, fairies, elemental entities, golems, you get the idea. When you think about it, the Hakurei Border is acting up and bringing in monsters from lots of places into Gensokyo. Shout outs to other series is imminent in this fanfic, so see if you can spot some of the references (at least half of the shout outs will be minor, like stuff found in … someone's shop, will be shout out to other series but have no direct impact on the story)


	2. Orcs, Zombies, and Inaba

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except my OCs. Touhou belongs to ZUN.

Author's note: If my OC, Damion, was a Mary-Sue/Garu-Stu type of character, he would be able to one-hit kill ALL enemies and have NO weaknesses. Trying to avoid this, I made sure his weakness was light and holy magic, and he does not have access to powerful spells yet. This Author's note applies to people who automatically assume OCs=Mary-Sue (Some writers do this intentionally, others do this without realizing it, others like me TRY TO AVOID THIS).

* * *

><p>As Damion raced down the shrine steps, he ran by several strong-looking monsters like trolls and elemental-entities-given-physical-form.<p>

From the crowd of monsters, he spotted some monsters alone that looked weak enough for Damion to take care of, so he engaged in some of the small-fry to get used to battle.

Of the monsters were small rats, orcs, and gargoyles. Damion engaged battle against some of the mentioned monsters.

Starting the battle, he used the 'Scan' spell on the orcs.

Various information about the monster became clear to him: low stats but average attack strength, resistant to physical attacks but vulnerable to magic, surprisingly susceptible to DEATH, they attack in packs but are cowards when in battle by themselves.

Unfortunately, the spell used up his turn, and it was time for the orc to take its turn.

The orc was holding a mace about the size of its body, and said mace was spiky and painful-looking. Despite its large weapon, it was able to wield it like it was a feather. It ran up to Damion and swung the weapon into Damion. Damion put up his guard to block the attack and managed to nullify SOME of the damage; he still took a fair bit of damage though.

Next up was the gargoyle; it ran up to Damion and slashed him once.

Damion's turn arrived, and it was time for him to act; he cast a spell of darkness, shooting a ball of darkness into the orc. The spell exploded upon contact with the monster, and it fell from the attack, being vulnerable to magic anyway.

The gargoyle wasn't fazed by the magic, and used its turn to slash Damion once again.

Damion used his turn to 'Scan' the gargoyle; various information came up about the monster. Average stats, absorbs darkness magic, strong against magic in general, weak to light magic, sometimes repels DEATH magic, the gargoyles are generally nocturnal and prey upon humans in the disguise of demon statues on libraries and important buildings, usually clever beings that hide their activities quite well.

This time, the gargoyle ran up to Damion, and used a special kind of magic to bring out Damion's soul for consumption. Unfortunately, no soul came out of the human as the magic failed.

"Whatever that was you tried to do. I'm glad it failed" Damion muttered. He used his turn to get in close combat with the gargoyle, punching and kicking. Unfortunately, the skill of close combat lowered his defensive stats; both magical and physical defense. The skill, however, was powerful with that one side-effect.

The gargoyle was sturdy enough to withstand the attack, and it began its retaliation by slashing Damion once more.

Damion was about halfway down to defeat from the attack, so he changed his strategy a little; he cast 'Cure' on himself to heal some of the damage. Fortunately, the healing undid some of the damage the gargoyle caused.

The gargoyle tried its spell again to remove Damion's soul, but failed.

Damion ended the fight by, once again, engaging in close combat. This was enough to defeat, if not shatter the gargoyle into dust from the attack.

The battle strengthened Damion a little, but not by much. Moving on, he ran down the shrine stairs further until he came across more orcs and gargoyles.

He engaged them in battle and prepared for battle.

The first thing Damion did was cast his deadliest spell on the gargoyle; DEATH spell. "_I hope it doesn't repel the spell or I'm screwed_" Damion thought to himself as he cast the spell. When he cast the spell, a grim reaper rose from the ground, and made a grab for the gargoyle. Unfortunately, the Grim Reaper's hand was blown back from the gargoyle, and the Grim Reaper's hand suddenly flew towards Damion. Fortunately, Damion side-stepped to avoid being hit with his own spell, and then the Reaper sank back down into the ground.

The gargoyle laughed provocatively and began its counterattack. It cast its own magic to bring out Damion's soul, but failed like the gargoyle before it.

Damion, relieved at the luck he's been getting so far, decided to make use of that luck and fight to become strong. Damion got in close to the gargoyle and gave it kick to the head. The attack didn't do much damage, but it left a dent in the gargoyle.

The gargoyle retaliated by running up to the young man and slashing him. Damion was weak now, as his health was about a third of maximum.

Damion countered by getting up and close with his close combat skill; essentially punching, kicking, and head-butting the gargoyle. The gargoyle shattered to pieces upon being hit by the skill, and Damion leveled up from the fight. His health and mana, however, did not spike to full from leveling up.

After the battle, Damion began using the 'Cure' spell repeatedly to bring his health back to full. Once he was healed up, he continued down the steps, seeking the weaker enemies for battle experience. In the pile of dust were some Yen.

Bending down to pick it up, he noticed it was a 1000 yen bill before pocketing that money.

"_I guess yen is the currency here of Gensokyo_" he thought to himself as he ran down the shrine steps towards town.

At the bottom of the shrine steps, Damion was greeted by a new kind of monster: zombies.

"Zombies… zombies… why do I get the feeling I know about them?" Damion asked himself, trying to help jump-start some of his lost memories. It didn't last long as Damion was attacked by them.

Damion engaged battle with the zombies, and started out by using 'Scan' on them. Information about the zombies included weakness to light, fire, and holy magic, immunity to DEATH magic, resistant to dark magic, low endurance compensated with slightly stronger attack stats, formerly humans or youkai that are animated corpses usually to serve a higher being such as necromancers and magicians.

The first of three zombies attacked Damion by walking up to him and 'Puking' on him. Zombies are usually slow and lethargic, so it was next to impossible to get hit if one is fast enough (and most healthy people are capable of outrunning zombies).

The second and third zombies began a combo of their own. The second moved in place behind Damion, while the third one was on the opposite side of the second zombie. The two zombies coordinated their movements so that it was difficult for Damion to escape. Then, the two zombies made their simultaneous attack; they lunged at the young man from behind and in front of him. Damion forgot to keep track of the zombie behind him, and only put up a defense against the zombie in front of him.

The second zombie bit down hard on Damion's right arm, while the third (behind Damion), grabbed Damion to stop his guard.

Damion didn't expect this tactic, and was unable to break free from the grip in time as the second zombie made its attack with close combat against Damion. This time, the zombie was quick with its combat speed for the attack, and landed all hits into Damion's stomach area.

Once the tag-team attack was over, the third zombie released Damion and returned to the first zombie's side.

This was when Damion noticed his health deteriorating from poison. Damion's immediate response was to use the 'Esuna' spell to get rid of the poison.

The first zombie attacked by biting Damion once again.

The second zombie used its turn to shoot a ball of puke from its mouth at Damion. Unfortunately, this tactic caught Damion off-guard again, and he was hit by the ball of puke.

The third zombie attacked through the same method the second one used. This time, Damion learned the tactic and dodged the ball of puke in time.

Fortunately, Damion wasn't poisoned from the bite or puke, so that gave him a window of opportunity to strike back. As such, he went in for a quick jab at the zombie's head. The attack was successful and dealt a fair bit of damage against the undead.

The first zombie retaliated by getting up close and personal with close combat skill. Damion thought the zombie was about to attack regularly, but then it became fast enough to keep up with Damion temporarily for the duration of the skill. Unlike Damion, the zombies don't have the side-effect of loss of defense. Even Damion noticed the defense wasn't lowered since the 'Scan' spell also kept track of buffs and debuffs.

The second zombie shot another ball of puke at Damion, but the young man stepped back to avoid the attack.

The third zombie lunged at Damion and bit him hard in the left arm.

Damion was weak by now, but not poisoned from the bite. His health was around a fifth of maximum, since he neglected to check on it periodically. Realizing his mistake, he cast the 'Cure' spell on himself. Bathing himself in a cloak of green healing magic, his health was restored a fifth of maximum, allowing him to be somewhat more battle-capable.

The first zombie got in up close for another round of close combat skill. Damion managed to parry most of the attacks but lost track a few times, so he didn't take as much damage as he expected.

The second zombie also got in to use the close combat skill on Damion, but it was slightly faster than the first zombie. Damion noticed it was because it had more health than the first zombie, therefore more battle-capable than the first. Like the first zombie, it didn't suffer from the defense loss when it used the 'Close Combat' skill.

Then, the third zombie attacked by shooting a ball of puke onto Damion. Damion was in the middle of recovering from the second zombie's close combat skill, so he was unable to dodge the third zombie's puke ball.

Damion's health was down to a fifth again, and he knew it. In response, the young man cast the 'Cure' spell on himself to bring his health back up to two-fifths of his health.

The first zombie attacked by shooting a ball of puke at Damion, who managed to dodge the attack this time.

The second zombie also puked towards Damion, but he was able to side-step out of the way.

The third zombie got in close for the close combat skill. Damion was able to get out of the way and avoid the attack altogether.

It was time for Damion's counterattack this time. He kicked the first zombie in the head, and the head popped off, essentially defeating the zombie. The first zombie, beheaded, collapsed to the ground, returning to dead status.

"_One down, two to go_" Damion thought to himself as he readjusted his pace of battle.

The second zombie took its turn to attack with another round of close combat. Damion wasn't fast enough to block all the attacks, so he ended up taking a fair bit of damage from the skill.

It was the third zombie's turn to attack, and it, like the second, used the skill 'close combat' onto Damion. The result was the same as the second; some damage dealt to DAmion.

Damion's health was now about a quarter of maximum, and he went for using 'Cure' this turn. Bathing himself in a cloak of green healing magic, he felt slightly more rejuvenated and battle ready (His health was almost half full after the spell).

The second zombie shot a ball of puke at Damion for its turn. The ball just barely grazed Damion.

The third zombie got in for another round of close combat. Damion was more prepared for the attack and managed to parry most of the attacks. This managed to minimize the damage to him tremendously.

Damion's turn came up and he attacked the second zombie with a jab to the stomach area. The damage approximately three-fourths of the second's health.

The second zombie was now desperate as it nodded to the third, and the third nodded back. The third ran around to behind Damion again, and it seemed like they were about to do their combo attack again.

"_Again!_" Damion thought to himself as he put up a defensive stance for the zombie in front of him.

Both zombies rushed in towards Damion and they both began using a pincer-style 'Close Combat' skill combo. The attack strategy was simple; a simultaneous attack from in front of, and behind, the intended target.

Damion fell victim to the combo the first time around, but he was more ready to face this strategy. What he did this time around was step to the side and turn so that he could see both zombies on the far sides.

Focusing on one zombie at a time, he parried the second's for a few seconds before turning his attention to the third. It was tough to block and parry from two enemies that are attacking at the same time while maintaining a steady pace. The strategy took out a lot of energy from the target, and Damion was feeling exhausted from the battle against them. Once the combo stopped, Damion's health was reduced down to a tenth of its maximum health.

Damion cast another 'Cure' spell on himself to try and heal some of the damage dealt to him.

The second zombie ran up to Damion and slashed him once.

The third zombie shot another ball of puke at Damion.

Damion, exhausted, finished off the second zombie with a kick to the head. That was enough to stop it and send it back to dead status.

The third zombie realized at this point that it couldn't use its combo attack again without another zombie, so it decided to win with its own strength. As such, it rushed towards Damion and bit him hard on the arm.

Unfortunately for Damion, the bite left another round of poison in his body, and he felt his health deteriorating even before his turn started. During his turn, however, Damion decided it was do-or-die time, and went for close combat against the third zombie. Fortunately, that was all it took to take down the last zombie.

"_If I had used that sooner, I might've had a hard time against the zombies with the defense debuff that skill has after the skill is used_" Damion thought to himself as he bent down to check on the fallen zombies. Inside the torn clothes were some yen that were sticking out.

After looting the dead bodies, Damion healed himself up with 'Esuna' and then 'Cure' spells to bring his health back to normal.

Once healed and rested enough, Damion headed into town to begin searching for leads.

* * *

><p>The town was mostly peaceful, save for the occasional monster harassing some youkai or groups of monsters destroying buildings. Some of the monsters were even chasing a few of the youkai around.<p>

Damion took it upon himself to clear out some of the monsters as long as he's here.

The closest monster near him was chasing a rabbit/human-like youkai. The monster was an orc that seemed hell-bent on killing that youkai.

Damion gave chase to that monster and got between the victim and monster.

"Let me take it from here" Damion said to the rabbit-like humanoid youkai.

The rabbit-like humanoid nodded and got behind Damion.

The battle was quick and simple; Damion cast his signature spell, DEATH, to summon a Grim Reaper from the ground and sent it towards the orc. Said orc was strong, but stupid, and was grabbed by the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper pulled out the orc's soul, hyper-sped the body's aging until it was a dead corpse, and then tossed the dead monster aside before sinking back into the ground.

"Did you just… murder that thing?" the rabbit-girl asked in fear.

"Murder is over exaggerating what I did to it. Killing would be a better word. Murder is the **killing of humans BY humans**. There's a difference between murder and killing. But putting that aside, are you alright?"

The rabbit-girl youkai calmed down enough to have a conversation with him. He explained that he's a newcomer to Gensokyo, arrived only moments ago, and sent to fight my way to find someone for Hakurei Reimu.

"I see you know how to fight and cast magic, but how skilled are you as a magician?" the rabbit-girl youkai asked.

"Only magic I know so far is darkness and death. If you're going to brand me as an evil wizard hell-bent on killing and/or murder, then I can't help but feel sorry for you if you won't look past that assumption"

"I was about to think you were a killing machine for knowing that death spell, but now I need to rethink my image of you"

"Anyway, I need to get back to work to find Marisa Kirisame" Damion said to her before walking away.

"Hold on, Marisa? Last I heard, she went to the Scarlet Devil Mansion to steal books from the mansion's library again" the rabbit-girl interrupted.

"Marisa? A thief? Is there anything else I need to know about her besides that?"

"Yeah, she's a human magician skilled in most elemental spells, and her house has some freaky security. Anyway, if you're headed to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and I strongly advise doing so, I suggest you learn how to use 'Fire' to get past the Misty Lake"

"Misty Lake? What's so bad about that place?"

"Cirno, the ice fairy, is usually seen there, and the place is more like a winter wonderland, even during the Summer"

"Cirno? Ice Fairy? Seems like all I gotta do is torch her a bit and she'll just fly away"

"She manipulates cold, and can cause hypothermia if you're fighting her too long in her territory. Fortunately, she's quite childish in nature and has a hard time thinking about complicated matters like paradoxes"

"Thanks for the heads up. I'm Damion"

"Reisen Udongein Inaba"

The two became acquaintances, and then Reisen began to teach Damion about how to use 'Fire' spell.

"Here's how it works: focus on converting usable mana round you into a ball of flame. If you're really skilled, you can make the fireball appear anywhere near you, or even on your opponent" she explained with a demonstration on how it worked.

Damion imitated and tried to learn how 'Fire' spell worked, failing a few times in the beginning.

"No, you need to think about creating a fire; you need a passion for hot things, a spell that you can create that burns even fire itself. You know what I mean?"

"Not quite, but I did catch the part where you said a spell that burns even fire"

"I was being metaphorical and trying to explain the kind of mentality needed to conjure the 'Fire' spell.

"Oh" Damion understood and tried again. Only this time, he was able to generate heat, not fire.

Damion knew he was on the right track, but needed to focus on creating a flame with heat, not just heat itself. Eventually, Damion was able to conjure a fireball in his palm after much practice.

"There we go, that's the 'Fire' spell"

Damion cheered for his success, and thanked the rabbit-girl for the help.

"Until we meet again, Reisen?"

"Indeed"

The young man and the rabbit-girl went their separate ways in town; Reisen went to town to solicit and sell items, while Damion went to clear out some of the monsters.

The next few monsters Damion took out were the ones chasing youkai. Most of the monsters chasing the youkai around were orcs; some of the orcs were smart enough (Despite their stupidity) to avoid Damion's Death spell or resist it altogether. In the rare cases that Damion had to get into battle when they resisted or were smart enough to evade the Death spell.

The fights lasted one or two turns at most since the orcs were scattered, and it seemed like each orc chased their own victim. The battles against the orcs went most like this: first turn, Damion attacks orc, orc retaliates by using its weapon, second turn, orc dies from second hit.

This process lasted for a while until the orc problem was manageable by the people of the town. Then, the zombies started swarming in from outside town.

* * *

><p>"More zombies, what a pain" Damion groaned as he noticed the groups of undead.<p>

"Need some help?"

Damion turned to look behind him, only to find out that it was Reisen Udongein Inaba. In her hands were a pair of pistols.

"If you had those guns before, why didn't you defend yourself against those orcs before!" Damion yelled as he noticed the weapons in her hand.

"Sorry, I forgot I had them" Reisen cutely apologized.

Damion sighed.

"Anyway, why aren't you at Youkai Mountain, heading for the Scarlet Devil Mansion?" Reisen asked the young man.

"I can't just leave this town overrun by those pesky monsters, now can I?" Damion shot back.

"I hope you can hold your own, and the zombies aren't usually this tough" Reisen warned Damion.

The young man nodded and prepared himself for battle.

Reisen and Damion charged into battle against the hoard of zombies.

Four zombies attacked Damion and 'guest' Reisen Inaba.

"Just let me know if you get tired; you can take a break and leave the fighting to me" Reisen said to Damion as she went first.

Reisen attacked by skillfully shooting the first zombie repeatedly with special bullets that seemed very effective against them. The first zombie went down fast.

It was Damion's turn, and he got in close with the second zombie and kicked the second's stomach area. This weakened the second zombie to about a third of its health left.

The second and third zombie nodded and began a tag-team combo, which Damion immediately recognized.

"Watch it, they're going to attack from behind AND in front of you" Damion warned as he saw the second zombie get behind Reisen.

Unfortunately, it was too late for Reisen to get out of the situation as the second restrained Reisen to prevent her from guarding. Damion rushed to Reisen and confronted the third zombie, that was about to use the 'close combat' skill on the restrained Reisen.

This was effective because Reisen now learned what it was that the zombies were up to. Thinking fast, Reisen leaned down, picking up her captor in the process, and flipping the second zombie (her captor) over her body and slammed it on the ground in front of her. Then, she proceeded to repeatedly shoot the downed zombie with her dual pistols into the second's head.

Damion, on the other hand, was busy dealing with the third's close combat skill. He kept up his guard and parrying the zombie's attacks until he heard Reisen's gunshots. He looked back to see that Reisen escaped restraint and then returned to her side, after escaping the third's onslaught. The second zombie was taken out since it already took damage.

Next up was the fourth zombie's turn, and it ran up to Damion to bite him in the arm. Unfortunately, the bite left Damion with poison.

"Are you alright? Let me take care of the poison for you" Reisen frantically said, searching through her inventory for medicine against poison.

"It's not that bad. I'll take care of the poison, Reisen. Can you cover me until I remove the poison?"

"Alright"

Reisen moved in front of Damion to act as a wall between Damion and the zombies. What Reisen did was go trigger-happy against the fourth zombie, essentially taking it down this turn.

Before his turn started, Damion felt his health deteriorate a bit from the poison. He used his turn to cast 'Esuna' on himself to remove the poison in his body. The spell covered Damion in a white veil, and essentially worked to remove harmful status ailments; in this case, it cured the caster of its poison status.

The third zombie attacked by getting up close and personal with Reisen, using 'close combat' skill. Reisen wasn't a close-range fighter, so all she did was run around to avoid getting hit by the zombie.

Damion was embarrassed by the sight of Reisen running away from an attack, that seemed to spell instant death to her if she's hit. To avoid further embarrassment, he got in between Reisen and the third zombie.

"Damn it! I thought you were someone I could depend on in battle!" Damion shouted as he began parrying and blocking the attacks the third zombie was using.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not good at close range attacks" Reisen shot back to the young man.

Damion used his turn to attack and defeat the third zombie.

Reisen and Damion stopped for a moment to catch their breaths, Reisen to reload her pistols, and Damion to sit on the ground for a few seconds.

"That wave is down, but another one is headed our way, Damion. Are you alright?" Reisen asked him.

"I thought you were the reliable type, after seeing your will to fight but turned chicken when the enemy got in close. As for how I'm doing, I can keep going for a while" Damion answered.

Another wave of zombies attacked Damion and Reisen.

It was another group of four zombies.

Reisen began her turn by skillfully shooting the fifth zombie in the head a couple times before the first zombie's head fell off.

Damion got off the ground and readied himself for battle. He used his turn to combine his 'Fire' spell with his 'Close Combat' skill. The result was a kicking move where Damion's feet were set ablaze (Fire doesn't affect Damion though).

Lunging at the sixth zombie, Damion thrust his flaming feet towards the sixth zombie. "**Blaze Kick!**" Damion roared as he made his attack. Damion's attack was quick and precise; jumping at the sixth zombie with feet set aflame, and giving it a hard kick to the stomach area. After the attack, Damion put out the flames on his feet. The sixth zombie, however, became burned from the attack and was set aflame. The sixth zombie eventually was burnt to where it turned into a pile of ashes.

"That was overkill, but just as awesome as that TV show, 'Masked Fighter Force' when the heroes finish off their enemies with …"

"Um… let's talk about that later" Damion interrupted Reisen.

The seventh zombie got in close to Reisen, and tried to use 'Close Combat' skill on her, but she fled and ran around with the seventh following her. Fortunately for her, Damion ran to get between her and the zombie. Damion began parrying and blocking the attacks the zombie was throwing at them.

"After the waves of enemies are over, I'm seriously going to have to teach you how to take hits and fight in close range" Damion swore to Reisen as he blocked the attack for her. The seventh eventually gave up and returned to the eighth zombie's side.

The eighth shot a ball of puke towards Reisen, but she side-stepped to avoid getting hit with the attack.

Reisen began her turn by firing rounds of bullets into the seventh's head. Fortunately, her attack was quite accurate and enough to take out the seventh with three bullets to the head.

Damion went next, and cast 'Fire' by shooting a small fireball from his palms at the eighth zombie. Fortunately, the zombies' magic defense was below average, so it fell to the 'Fire' spell.

The second wave of zombies went down, and there was enough time for Damion to rest.

"There's one last wave of zombies coming. How are you holding out?" Reisen Inaba asked Damion.

"Just need to rest for a moment, use 'Cure' a few times to get my health back up. Thanks for asking" Damion replied. He cast 'Cure' on himself to bring his health from two-fifths up to three-fifths, and then again to bring his health up to four-fifths.

Reisen Udongein reloaded her pistols and took out a bottle of unusual medicine. "Here, drink this. It should restore some of your mana" she said as she handed Damion the bottle.

Damion took the bottle, opened it, and sniffed it.

"Doesn't smell of alcohol, thank goodness" he muttered before downing the bottle. As he drank, he felt his energy being restored and his mana being replenished.

"What's wrong with alcohol? Are you allergic?"

"No, it's just that I just don't like getting wasted, or so I hear"

Reisen giggled a little and called Damion childish.

Unfortunately, their time to rest came to an end as the third wave of zombies attacked.

Damion and Reisen readied themselves for the battle; Damion stood up, while Reisen readied her pistols. Like before, it was another group of four zombies.

Reisen went first and began readying herself for her overdrive ability.

"I suggest you close your eyes if you don't want to be affected" Reisen warned Damion. The young man nodded and shut his eyes.

Reisen used her special ability of lunacy to dazzle, confuse, and disorient the group of zombies. Distorting the air around the group of zombies, she made it seem like the zombies were hallucinating and seeing things that didn't exist. The only effect the ability had on the enemies were status ailments confusion and blindness.

"You can open your eyes now" she said to Damion. The young man opened his eyes, and saw the four zombies aimlessly attacking one another or themselves, with even less success due to being blinded from insanity.

Deciding to ask about it later, he took the opportunity to shoot a 'Fire' spell at the ninth zombie, incinerating it to ashes.

The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth zombies attacked one another during their turns, missing by inches due to their status ailments.

Reisen used her turn to shoot the tenth zombie repeatedly in the head, using about five bullets and defeating the tenth.

Damion's turn came and he got in close with the eleventh, using 'Close Combat' skill. The eleventh wasn't able to defend itself, so the damage Damion dealt was higher than usual. Essentially, the eleventh fell from the attack.

The last zombie was so confused and disoriented that it attacked itself in confusion.

Reisen ended the battle by shooting the last zombie in the head with five bullets.

Damion gained about three levels from the battle against the three waves of zombies, thus becoming somewhat stronger.

* * *

><p>"Phew, thanks for helping me take care of the zombie hoard" Reisen said to Damion. The young man was looting the ten zombies' bodies, pulling out approximately 7000 yen, and three potions that were labeled 'health drink'.<p>

"No problem… I just need to rest for a while and catch my breath from that battle" Damion answered as he returned to Reisen's side.

"You know…" Reisen began, "I'm not that good with humans"

"Why is that?"

"It's just – it – it… just call it timidity"

"Oh, alright. I hope you overcome your timidity"

"Thank you"

"Now that the monster problem here is taken care of, I can get moving to that 'Youkai Mountain' place and find the Scarlet Devil Mansion, wherever that is"

"Youkai Mountain? That's near the human village where I was headed to. I can take you to Youkai Mountain, but you'll have to figure out where to go from there; I haven't had a chance to explore Youkai Mountain much"

"Thanks, that'd be a big help"

After resting and helping one another, Reisen lead Damion towards Youkai Mountain.

* * *

><p>END OF CHAPTER<p>

Author's notes:

I know Reisen Udongein Inaba doesn't use pistols as weapons in canon, but I got the idea after doing some research as to what the fandom usually thinks about her (some people went with the idea that she's the gunner type, and I guess I went along with the idea since it seemed interesting). She did not join Damion in his quest, but rather as a temporary 'GUEST' fighter for the time. I will make it clear when someone joins Damion's party.

REMINDER: THIS IS NOT A CROSSOVER FANFIC (Even though I borrowed some battle concepts from a few series, this fic is not a crossover since it doesn't involve characters from other series brought in. The battle system in this fic draws heavily on typical RPG game battle systems from a lot of games)


	3. Youkai Mountain

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Touhou. I only own my OCs. ZUN owns Touhou

* * *

><p>Reisen was leading Damion across Gensokyo towards Youkai Mountain. Along the way, Damion recapped his story to Reisen to help pass the time. After telling his story that he remembered so far, he changed the topic to other things.<p>

"Judging by your clothes, I take it you're a student at some private school?" Damion started.

"School? There are only a handful of schools in Gensokyo, but I don't think any of them are private schools. Besides, this is what I normally wear. Is there a reason for asking about my clothes?"

"No, I'm going to guess it's a culture difference between humans and youkai"'

"More like from an outsider who still needs to adjust to Gensokyo" Reisen retorted.

Damion was somewhat offended. "Couldn't you have worded that a little nicer? I only got here in Gensokyo an hour ago, and I STILL don't know my way around"

This time, Reisen backed down. "Sorry, I thought you were making fun of me about my outfit"

"Oh, so this is why you got defensive? My bad. Let's change the topic"

"Yeah"

Damion and Reisen were quiet for a moment. Reisen was upset over the misunderstanding, while Damion was mentally beating himself up for asking a stupid question.

Then, Reisen changed the topic to something more casual.

"In case you were wondering about what I was doing in town, I'm a medicine salesperson for Eirin. As for the weapons, they were standard issue pistols in from… training… in a faraway place"

"Alright, but I can't help wondering what kind of 'training' you went through to get issued those guns"

"I'd rather not talk about it"

"Okay. Sorry if I was prying too much"

"It's just that there's a reason why I don't want to talk about it. Just call it paranoia" Reisen laughed lightly.

"Fair enough. So, who's Eirin?"

"Eirin Yagokoro is a pharmacist who moved to Gensokyo a long time ago from… a faraway place… for personal reasons…but doesn't want to go back. As a result, she went into hiding here in Gensokyo and took up a job as a doctor/pharmacist due to her genius-level intelligence and extensive knowledge in medicine" Reisen explained enthusiastically.

"Sounds very interesting"

"It would be as cool as you think, if not for her hesitation to leave her office. I don't know why she stays at her house, but all I know is that it's hard to find her house. There's also another reason why she lives in a hard-to-find location; it so that… assassins or thieves… wouldn't harm, steal, or abduct her"

"Sounds vague, but I'll just leave it at that. I get the feeling that you want to change the topic again, huh?"

"How'd you know?"

"One lesson I learned in psychology is to detect signs of resistance to a subject during a conversation. The lesson basically says that if the other person talks vaguely about a subject **intentionally**, then it's a sure sign that says they're not willing to talk about that subject"

"Psychology? Isn't that the study of psychos with crazy minds or people who go insane?"

"No. Psychology is the study of how the mind and body works. Suppose I talk to you about Eirin's past in this 'faraway place' and claim to know more than I really do. You might assume I know about her real past, when in reality, I don't. It's a branch of science that specializes in how people behave … hello?"

Reisen was having a hard time understanding. "Sorry, but can you say that simpler?"

Damion smiled and sighed. "It's understanding how people think and react to the environment"

"Is it similar to how you can learn to control people?"

"No, but that can be a form of psychological warfare"

"There's a military tactic that uses the enemy's mind?"

"Maybe 'warfare' is inaccurate; perhaps 'using psychology as a strategy to attack' would be simpler"

"I'm sorry, but I still don't understand"

Damion, once again, sighed. "Suppose I know something deep, dark, super embarrassing, and so secret that you don't want anyone to know about, and I'm threatening to tell everyone about those secrets. It's a kind of attack against someone using their fears. The damage to the person if said secrets were revealed might be too much for that person and they might do things that they might regret, like suicide"

"I kind of understand"

"Perhaps I need to explain it a different way… hrm…"

The two travelers were quiet for a while. Damion was trying to figure out how to explain psychology to Reisen, but Reisen was trying to think of how psychology works.

"How about this: it's like that ability of yours to confuse enemies. I don't know what you did, but the attack left some damage to the monsters' mentality… Perhaps this isn't the right analogy"

"My power causes lunacy towards anyone who looks directly at my eyes or if I distort sound, light, gamma, or other kinds of waves around the enemies"

"Okay, perhaps I can explain knowing a little of how your power works… Confusion and lunacy are signs of unstable mentality. What you did, probably, was affect the enemy's perception of their surroundings, which confused them"

"How is this related to psychology?"

"Psychology is the study of how the mind and body works. Confusion is the disorientation of the mind in the body, and the body reacts according to how the mind perceives its surroundings"

"Simple, please!"

"If the enemy 'sees' something wrong around them, and it confuses them, they will act all confused-like because they see something that might not be there. Their mind is tricked into seeing illusions, and their behavior is affected by what they 'saw'" Damion tried explaining in simpler terms.

"So, they acted differently because of the confusion?"

"We're making a little progress in teaching you psychology. They acted differently because their perception was altered"

"In other words, my ability is some kind of 'psychological' attack?"

"In a way, yes. Psychology is a lot more than just confusion and lunacy; it's about how people 'react' to 'situations'. Do they teach this kind of stuff in schools here in Gensokyo?"

"No, I don't think so. It's hard for me to understand this 'psychology' thing"

Damion gave up on teaching her about Psychology, and changed the subject to more general aspects of Gensokyo, like famous landmarks and popular places. The rabbit-girl youkai was a lot more eager to talk about this subject.

The conversation about Gensokyo was informative and helpful to Damion, as he learned a lot about Gensokyo as a whole. To Damion, the passage of time seemed to accelerate while talking to Reisen Udengein Inaba about the world he's in.

Then, Reisen stopped in front of a gate after a long time travelling. On the gate was a stone tablet that said 'Beware the Scarlet Mansion and the Tengu'. Below that stone tablet was another one that read 'Youkai Mountain'. Behind the gate was a forest of some kind with a large mountain way in the background.

"Here's Youkai Mountain. I wonder whether you're really brave to venture into the Scarlet Mansion, or just have a death wish"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, right. I forgot. Anyway, the Scarlet Devil Mansion is home to vampire sisters and a few other people. To get there, you need to find the lake covered in mist. If Cirno is there, try to run from her or you might suffer from hypothermia just by being near her. The mansion is on an island in the middle of the lake, so you might want to make yourself a boat, or hope you find one to get yourself there" Reisen said to Damion before heading off.

"_Alright, this shouldn't be too bad, now should it?_" Damion thought to himself as he entered the boundaries of the mountain.

* * *

><p>Inside the mountain boundaries, the atmosphere changed tremendously, as if entering a whole different place and becoming accustomed to the new environment.<p>

It was mostly forest to begin with, but somewhat easy to navigate. There were some new monsters in this part of Gensokyo.

However, Damion had this uneasy feeling he was being watched.

The feeling didn't last long as Damion was ambushed by monsters.

The monster group this time consisted of an aggressive deer, and a crow tengu.

Damion immediately cast the 'Scan' spell on the tengu first. Various information about the youkai became clear to Damion: they were experts in wind magic with the ability to absorb wind-based magic, weak to electric magic, have the habit of sometimes being immune to Death spell, adept at dodging melee attacks, despite all this they have low endurance against physical attacks, average magic defense, more mischievous than malicious.

The deer monster ran up to Damion, turned around, and used its rear legs to kick Damion in the stomach area.

The crow tengu youkai hesitated this turn.

Damion then used 'Scan' again, this time on the deer monster. Various information about the monster became clear to him: they used to be peaceful creatures until something disturbed and corrupted them into being aggressive, immune to earth magic, resistant to Death spell, high attack, average defense, weak to fire spells.

The deer monster, this time, tackled Damion. This pushed the young man back a foot or two.

The crow tengu took out its camera and snapped a picture of Damion.

Using what he learned from the 'Scan' spell, Damion went for the more typical course of action and casting 'Fire' onto the deer monster. Unfortunately, the damage was approximately three-fourths of its health. Fortunately, the spell left a burn on the deer's tail.

The deer monster, this turn, began running around trying to put out the flame on its tail.

The crow tengu youkai backed up slowly, but Damion noticed this and rushed to prevent escape.

Damion pointed at the tengu and threatened, "You're next, after I take out that monster that attacked me"

"Ack! What did I do to you!"

This surprised Damion as the tengu youkai responded to the threat.

"Say what! I thought you were teaming up with that monster to kill me" Damion shouted back to the tengu.

"No, you're one of the few males in Gensokyo, and a new face at that, so I wanted to see and learn about you" the tengu replied somewhat frightfully.

"Alright. Give me a few seconds to finish that thing before it finishes _me_"

Then, Damion took his turn to cast another 'Fire' spell at the deer. The deer managed to shake off the burn during the time Damion was distracted by the tengu, and prepared itself for the finishing blow. The 'Fire' spell exploded in the deer's head, and killed it.

"Are you a wizard or sorcerer?" the timid tengu asked Damion.

"I'm not exactly sure _what_ I am since I have yet to remember much about myself" Damion admitted.

"So… when did you come to Gensokyo?"

"**Hold it right there!**"

Damion and the tengu looked around for whoever yelled at them.

"Oh great, it's HER!" the crow tengu groaned.

A female figure fell from the sky and landed in front of the two.

The girl this time had black wings on her back, a camera slung around her neck, and a small notebook in her left hand.

"What's this about a new face in Gensokyo?" the girl asked the crow tengu before looking at the young man.

"None of your business. I'm just here on account of some rumors that I might be able to find Marisa Kirisame at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Some errand that Reimu girl sent me to do" Damion told the intruding girl as he walked away into the mountain.

"I just wanted to interview and get a few pictures for an article about a new human visiting Gensokyo, and trying to brave dangers by entering Youkai Mountain" the reporter said to Damion while following him.

Ignoring her, Damion left the area to venture deeper into Youkai Mountain.

* * *

><p>Damion ventured deeper into the forest area of the mountain, trying to ignore the reporter who had been stalking him for a while.<p>

It seemed like a half-an-hour into the forest when Damion decided to take a rest and get his bearings.

"You must be either really stupid or really brave to get lost in the Youkai Mountain area" the reporter said somewhat condescendingly to the young man.

Damion gave up and asked, "Fine, I'll admit I'm lost. Can you help me out?"

"I can't guarantee your safety, but I can help you get around, provided you tell me about yourself in an interview for my next article" the reporter whimsically answered.

"Alright. What's your name?"

"Aya Shameimaru. Reporter and writer of the Banbanmaru newspaper. I suggest you don't upset me or you might regret it. A lot of youkai know better than to fight me and my speed; just some friendly advice to the newcomer to Gensokyo"

"Damion. That's my name" Damion introduced himself. He then cast 'Scan' on Aya out of instinct. Various information about her became very clear to Damion as he learned more: She's a crow tengu with very high speed, uses wind magic and absorbs said element, weak to thunder, terrible at dodging thunder magic and is weak to said element, average attack, can occasionally attack twice during the same turn if her speed well exceeds her opponent(s), and has a tendency to slightly exaggerate things she learns from interviews and publishes said exaggerations as part of her newspaper business.

Upon seeing Damion use the 'Scan' spell, she became somewhat uncomfortable around him. "Just what are you doing, scanning a lady like me?"

Realizing what she meant, Damion tried to quickly defuse the misunderstanding, "You got the wrong idea! I'm new to Gensokyo, was taught the 'Scan' spell by Reimu, and was strongly advised to 'Scan' every possible threat so I can be prepared to fight as necessary!"

"Just what kind of information were you looking at?"

"Combat data! What information do you think I could possibly take an interest in?"

"Three sizes, color of undergarments, abusing the spell to see me in lustful ways"

Damion was angry now. "Is that what you assume all guys to be like? If that's the case, then I would _love_ to meet the men of Gensokyo and verify that assumption myself. Your first impression of me really needs to change…"

"Um, just one problem with that statement about Gensokyo guys" Aya interrupted.

"What is it?"

"There are only a handful of males in Gensokyo, and females from both youkai AND humans have a huge difference in female-to-male ratio"

Damion took a moment to put two-and-two together.

"What's your point?"

"Are you really dense? It means that it's RARE for males to come to Gensokyo. Even rarer are males that hunt down youkai. In addition, the male to female ration is way outbalanced; there are so many females in Gensokyo that it would be difficult for you to find a male" Aya explained thoroughly.

"Wait, is this true? Gensokyo primarily consists of women?" Damion asked in shock.

"Yeah, but don't get any funny ideas, as most of the females are youkai and powerful too"

Damion held his face in his hand as though to say 'I cannot believe what I am hearing'.

"What's wrong?"

"Can you help me get to Misty Lake?"

Aya saw this as an opportunity. "Sure, but you have to let me get this scoop"

"Scoop?"

Aya opened her notebook and took out a pen from her pocket. She then explained what she meant by 'scoop', meaning interview with a rare sight.

Damion nodded and began the interview.

"Alright, so your name is Damion. Tell us about yourself"

"I don't remember much about myself, probably due to that 'Hakurei Border' thing, but I only remembered my home world being severely unstable to the point where it exploded and I had to be warped by a god to be sent to safety. Why the god saved me was because I did that god a big favor for him"

"Sounds like an interesting story. Care to tell me about it?"

Damion looked down silently. "It has a depressing ending; Heinz Dilemma situation"

"Heinz Dilemma situation? What's that?"

"Heinz Dilemma is practically a lose-lose scenario with no option for a happy ending to that scenario"

"So what was your dilemma?"

"I had to choose between being the successor to the god, or have one wish granted and then die with the world. It's a very complicated story"

"I see. What about your relationship with that Hakurei Reimu girl?"

"Relationship? She showed me the ropes of Gensokyo, and I owe her for warning me about what to expect in Gensokyo"

"So, do you like her?"

"FUCK NO!"

"Oh, then are you… gay?"

"That's even more disgusting than your first impression of me. I'm not gay either"

"What? Are you in training to be a monk or something?"

"No"

"Then why aren't you interested in pursuing a healthy relationship with a girl?"

"Personal reasons. Enough said"

"Did you have your heart broken by someone you had a crush on, and then swore off romance?"

"You've got some kind of active imagination, don't you? As for that assumption, absolutely not"

"You're definitely an odd fellow, I'll give you that" Aya ended the interview after taking a picture of Damion.

"Time for you to keep your end of the bargain, if this interview is over" Damion reminded her.

Aya nodded, and lead the way.

* * *

><p>It seemed like fifteen minutes of following Aya around when the temperatures suddenly started to go down tremendously.<p>

"I hope you aren't sensitive to the cold. We're just about there to the Misty Lake" Aya said to Damion, who was straggling a bit from the cold.

Aya noticed this just in time before she lost sight of Damion, so she made sure to keep him close.

Just then, their vision started to get hazy from the mist, and that was when Aya told Damion that they reached Misty Lake.

Upon arrival at the lake, it was snowing and various winter-based enemies were around.

"I hope your sight-seeing is over soon, because this place and the Devil Scarlet Mansion aren't very safe tourist attractions for humans" Aya said to Damion with concern.

"Listen, I came here hearing a rumor that Marisa might be at the Scarlet mansion. If she's not there, then I'll just ask around"

Aya smiled at the comment. "You're an interesting guy for facing danger head-on, I'll give you that much. Don't worry; I won't make you look bad… much"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing"

Before Damion could make a comeback, Aya flew in the air and made her escape.

Unfortunately, some of the winter-based monsters got the jump on Damion as he was distracted by Aya's escape.

The monster group consisted of a deer, an animated snowman patrol, and a gargoyle.

The deer went first and gave Damion a kick to his back. Damion was pushed forward from the kick. The young man immediately turned around to get ready for battle.

Then, the snowman patrol went next, casting 'Blizzard' spell. The spell in particular caused the area around Damion to become even colder than before, and ice began to form on his arms. Fortunately, his hands weren't frozen.

The gargoyle used its turn to slash Damion's arm. Fortunately, the young man dodged the attack and prevented his arms from being shattered.

Damion, not wanting to waste the first turns scanning the new enemy, saved that tactic for later. So, he went with the knowledge of the enemies thus far and took on the deer enemy first. He cast 'Fire' on the deer, shooting a small fireball that exploded on contact with the animal monster. The damage to it was approximately three-fourths of its health.

The deer monster took its turn to jump and use its powerful legs to kick Damion again. Fortunately, it missed the frozen arms of Damion and aimed at his stomach area.

The animated pile of snow began its attack by rushing up to Damion and tackling him. Unfortunately, Damion was unable to dodge the attack in time, and the attack also caused the young man's body temperature to drastically decrease.

The gargoyle began its attack by using its spell to try and remove Damion's soul. Fortunately, the spell failed to remove Damion's soul.

During Damion's turn, however, he felt his speed decreasing from the drop in temperature. He cast 'Fire' on himself to thaw out the ice on his arm, and then cast 'Fire' on the deer. The 'Fire' spell ended the life of the deer.

The snowman cast another 'Blizzard' spell on Damion, further decreasing his body temperature, and dealing damage at the same time.

The gargoyle monster got in close to slash Damion, which successfully hit the young man due to his decreased speed from the cold.

"_Damn, if I get any colder than this, I might just freeze to death_" Damion thought to himself. During his turn, Damion used 'Fire' on himself. Although the hurt himself with his own spell, the benefit was his body temperature rising to normal. This left Damion with about a third of his health left.

The snowman monster tackled Damion this turn, and his body temperature decreased a bit from the icy foe.

The gargoyle ran up to Damion and tried to give him another slash, and succeeded in hitting the young man.

Damion was down to one-fifth of his health left, and he knew he was losing the fight, and it was getting worse by the second with his body temperature falling with every attack the snowman uses. What Damion did was take out one of the bottles he got from some enemies before, opened the bottle, and drank the 'Health Drink'.

Surprisingly, Damion's health was replenished up to about 70% of full health. In addition to that, Damion's body temperature started increasing.

"_Holy hell! What was that drink?_" Damion asked himself as he felt energized and more battle ready.

He used his turn to use his 'Close Combat' skill on the gargoyle. Since Damion was stronger than he was since the last time he fought a gargoyle, the damage to them was greater, and strong enough to wipe it out in a few strikes from the close combat skill. This also meant Damion's defenses dropped from the attack. That also meant the gargoyle shattered to pieces upon defeat.

This left Damion to deal with the snowman monster, and then he could rest once he beat it.

The animated pile of snow monster charged towards Damion in an attempt to tackle it, but the young man just barely managed to get out of the way.

Now, Damion assumed, was the perfect chance to get info on those snowmen monsters. He cast 'Scan' on the snowman and learned various information about the monster: although they were originally a pile of snow fashioned into human figures they were infused with life magic to become animated. Use of 'Blizzard' spells deplete some of the magic it keeps itself animated with. They are obviously weak to fire, absorbs ice magic and converts said ice magic into life energy to keep itself animated, Immune to Death as they are not living creatures.

The snowman monster, despite being scanned, pressed on with the battle despite now fighting on equal grounds; the snowman monster knows that it would eventually kill the young man through hypothermia, AND the young man knows how to counter the cold and defeat the snowman. The animated snow monster went and tackled Damion. Unlike before, Damion was grazed by the tackle, not being able to completely avoid the attack.

Now it was Damion's turn to retaliate; he cast 'Fire' on the snowman by shooting a fireball from his palms. Unfortunately, most of the damage that WOULD'VE been dealt was suppressed by the cold environment, nullifying some of the heat from the 'Fire' spell. The damage dealt, though, amounted to a third of the snowman's health.

The animated snowman was desperate now, and it was showing signs of desperation. Without warning, the animated snowman quickly ran at Damion in a full-blown suicide tackle. Instead of simply tackling the young man, the snowman collapsed as it tried to encase the young man in its snowy remains. This was its last-ditch attempt to kill Damion, and it risked everything.

Damion, unfortunately, was buried under the snow that the former snowman once was. His body temperature was decreasing significantly, and he was losing consciousness fast.

"_Is this the end for me?_" Damion thought to himself as he blacked out.

Nearby, a young girl with white hair and what looked like animal ears on her head walked by to see the last of the battle Damion just went through.

"Is this the intruder to Youkai Mountain?" the girl asked as if talking to the near-dead body. She picked up the near-frozen body and dragged it behind her to outside the Youkai Mountain gate.

* * *

><p>Outside the gate to Youkai Mountain, the girl cast 'Fire' magic on the young man to warm up his body and prevent his death from hypothermia.<p>

"_A male human? That's kind of rare_" the girl thought to herself as she continued to assist the young man.

After a while, Damion came to and bolted awake suddenly, surprising the girl.

"I thought I was dead" Damion panted heavily, partially due to his near-death experience.

"Eep! Don't scare me like that" the girl screamed in surprise upon Damion's sudden awakening.

Damion looked around, somewhat disorientedly. "Where am I?" he aske aloud. Soon, he noticed the person next to him.

"I'm glad you're okay now. I'm supposed to drive out intruders to Youkai Mountain, but I brought you out to make sure you're safe" the girl told him.

"Thanks, I guess. My name's Damion. What's yours?"

"Momiji Inubashiri"

"Thanks, Momiji. My business in Youkai Mountain was simply to investigate a rumor about Marisa Kirisame being spotted at the Scarlet Mansion. I have some matters to discuss with her, and I'm doing so in place of Hakurei Reimu"

"I understand, but it's just that I have orders to keep out intruders, and I am hoping you keep out of this place regardless of errands or reasons. It's too dangerous as tengu usually harass or hunt humans that enter"

Getting up weakly, Damion began to try and cast a spell, but dropped to his knees before getting a chance to cast it.

"Please, I don't want to have to try and keep you out, but you should return to the human village where it's safe. If you insist on entering Youkai Mountain, then I'm afraid you have to go through me" Momiji warned politely.

Resting on the ground, Damion decided to cast the spell sitting down. He cast 'Scan' on Momiji, and various information about her became very clear to him: average attack and defense stats, strong against earth magic, absorbs water magic, Repels Death, weak to electricity, average dodge rate (magic is a reliable method of landing hits on her though), a white wolf tengu that patrols the Youkai Mountain, keeping out intruders.

"Just what spell or hex did you cast just now?" Momiji asked threateningly. She became very uncomfortable when she noticed the young man use a spell.

Damion sighed and told her the truth, "Relax, I just used 'Scan' to get an idea of what to expect if I come across you again. All I got was combat info"

Momiji sighed a breath of relief.

"What did you think I was going to use? A spell that causes instant death?" Damion chuckled.

"Actually, I was about to think that you wanted to fight despite the condition you're in"

Damion chuckled lightly at the assumption. "Fight, in this condition I'm in right now? It'd be like casting an instant-death spell on myself"

"Good. Please, stay out of Youkai Mountain if you want to stay alive. I saved you once, but I won't save you a second time" Momiji warned him.

Damion laid back down on the ground to relax. "Once I'm recovered, I plan to go back in and find this 'Scarlet Mansion' to investigate some rumors, then leave. That's pretty much all I'm here for right now. What did you think I was going to do in Youkai Mountain?"

It was Momiji's turn to be honest. "Slay youkai, go genocidal and cause an extinction of the Kappa, kill us Tengu, destroy the Moriya Shrine, put an end to the Bunbunmaru newspaper, kill the oni that live here, generally disrupt the peaceful life at Youkai Mountain"

"Wait a minute… kappa? Moriya Shrine? Oni? Tengu?"

"Are you not from the human village, Damion!"

"Hell no! I just got here today from this 'Hakurei Border' thing, and was asked to find someone for Reimu Hakurei"

This caught Momiji off-guard completely. "Wait, then you're an outsider"

"'Outsider'? Is that what the people of Gensokyo call newcomers that come from the Hakurei Border?"

Momiji sighed and placed one hand on her face.

Then, a familiar face came by from another direction.

"Ah, Damion! What are you doing out of Youkai Mountain? Did you finish your business already?"

Damion recognized the voice to belong to Reisen Inaba.

"Oh, you know him, Reisen?" Momiji asked the rabbit-girl.

Reisen nodded and explained how she met Damion to her.

"Wow, I guess he's not as helpless as I thought if he is able to use magic like that, especially that lethal spell he mysteriously knows" Momiji replied somewhat impressed.

"Yeah, but he seems like he's experienced in battling before" Reisen added.

"Actually, I remember fighting before, but not with the magic I knew" Damion added.

"Did you remember anything about yourself?" Reisen asked.

"Sorry. Not yet. All I know is that the instant-death spell is very familiar to me, but I don't know why" Damion admitted, looking down as if apologizing.

"Why don't you come with me to see Eirin? I'll do the explaining to her about you" Reisen offered.

"Eirin? Oh yeah, that pharmacist/doctor you told me about. Sorry, but I'm gonna rest before heading back in there" Damion answered.

"Suit yourself"

With that, Reisen left.

"Listen, if you are dead-serious about going to that 'Scarlet Mansion', then I'm afraid you need to learn how to deal with the mistress of the mansion first; as you probably know, the mansion is home to vampire sisters, Remilia and Flandre Scarlet. Remilia claims to be a descendant of Dracula, but there is no way to verify that fact yet"

Damion took the information in as it came.

"I saw that you had trouble against the snowman patrol that Cirno created for her amusement"

"I'm kind of kicking myself about it. If only I was strong enough to take care of them, then I wouldn't have lost to that 'thing'."

"Have you tried using a stronger version of that spell yet?"

"Sorry, but I'm still new to the 'Fire' spell, and I… DAMN IT!" Damion suddenly came to realization about an idea of how to take care of them more efficiently.

"What? What is it?"

"Why didn't I use that before!"

This time, Momiji grabbed Damion's shoulders and shook him. "What is it that you forgot?"

Damion was silent for a moment, and then answered, "I just thought of a combo, but I'm not sure if it'll work"

"Oh, I thought you figured a way to beat Remilia and her sister, Flandre, if they tag-teamed you"

"I'll figure something out if that's ever the case"

"Well, I need to get back to patrolling the mountain; if I see you again, I will not hesitate to use force to keep you out. This is just a heads-up"

With that, Momiji picked up her shield and sword, and then entered the gate to Youkai Mountain.

Shortly after Momiji left, Damion began practicing his combo that he came up with.

The combo was a modification to his fire-element combo attack, but did more than provide an elemental affinity to a regular attack; it provided heat to the user. The downside to the combo, however, was a huge loss of health while the combo is used.

Damion began practicing the combo up and down the road outside the gate to Youkai Mountain. However, a gap opened above him and out popped another Youkai.

"Oh, there you are"

Damion flinched during his practice run, and looked around for the source of the voice. He was unable to do so.

"Up here, handsome!"

Heeding the voice, Damion looked up. What he saw astonished him; it was Yukari Yakumo coming out of a gap.

Fearing what was about to happen, Damion cast his 'Scan' spell on her. Various information about the mysterious youkai became clear to Damion; the youkai was Yukari Yakumo, a VERY powerful youkai who manipulates all boundaries, immune to every known magic but repels Death spells, has a shikigami that has a shikigami of its own, the difference between Damion's current combat ability and Yukari's was way outbalanced; Damion did not stand a chance against her in his current state.

"I believe that Aya girl mentioned it, but it's rather rude to 'Scan' a lady" Yukari scoffed at Damion.

"Like I said to that reporter, I only gathered combat data so I know what I'm up against" Damion retorted.

"Well, putting that aside, I see you're trying to prepare for that wintery hell Cirno placed in Misty Lake?"

"What of it?"

"Oh, come now. I just wanted to talk about how you got here and what you were prior to coming to Gensokyo"

This surprised Damion completely. "I hope you aren't about to tell me lies to lower my guard, then eat me for your amusement"

"Now why would I do that? I prefer meat from livestock, tea, and pastries. Human meat tasted rather foul and disgusting. That's beside the point though!"

"Let's stop beating around the bush then. Why did you come to see me?"

Yukari was amused at this. "I just wanted to check on the latest addition to Gensokyo and make sure he didn't get himself killed or eaten"

"I almost died, but was saved by Momiji; I owe her that much. Now I'm just preparing myself for travelling to that Scarlet Mansion to find Marisa"

"Marisa? You mean that thieving witch? She's at the Mansion right now, fighting with Patchouli Knowledge over Marisa stealing books from her library again"

"I see. Is that all you wanted to do with me; check in and see what I'm up to?" Damion asked sternly.

"That's kind of rude how you asked that, but yes… I'm done checking up on you"

"Alright then. I hope we can start over and properly get acquainted next time we meet. I'm just a little upset that I lost to the cold, and I'm kind of beating myself for not being properly prepared"

"I look forward to being properly acquainted as well. Until next time, I bid you farewell" Yukari said to Damion before retreating back into the gap she made earlier and closed said gap behind her.

"_Weirdo_" Damion thought to himself about Yukari before practicing his combo.

* * *

><p>END OF CHAPTER<p>

Author's notes:

Yes, Damion's defeat from the cold was purely intentional to keep him out of being too strong or too special.

Also, the 'RPG' in the title of this fanfic refers to the style of battle against characters, Kingdom Hearts style battles.

One of my goals while writing this is to stay true to canon and adopt some fanon ideas. Editing and revising this chapter was arguably the hardest thing to do to make it more legible and understandable to people new to Touhou AND veterans of Touhou games, so please don't think less of me for this (I'm practically a newcomer to Touhou myself).


	4. Youkai Mountain round 2 NIGHTBUG

DISCLAIMER: Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN), while Damion belongs to me.

_Author's note: Combo attacks in this fanfic have several properties. If a combo attack is performed by one combatant, then he or she will be unable to perform another combo for a few turns depending on the combo. If there are two or more combatants on the same team, and if a combo attack requires two individuals to perform, then the combo uses both combatants' turns in that one turn. The same rule applies if there are three or more participants in one combo attack. Generally speaking, the more combatants in a combo, the stronger the combo. However, combos that require more participants require more turns before any of the participants can use a combo. There is also another requisite that must be met: those participating in the combo MUST BE ABLE TO USE A COMBO AS IF THEY WERE ABOUT TO USE IT DURING THEIR TURN._

* * *

><p>After much practice with his new combo, and resting off the damage the combo did to him, Damion was ready to fight the cold and head towards Scarlet Mansion.<p>

"_Alright, time to give this a shot_" Damion thought to himself once he was rested and ready to go.

* * *

><p>In the forest area of Youkai Mountain, more aggressive deer monsters attacked the young man.<p>

Damion engaged the deer in battle. There were two of them in this group.

Damion started the battle by using one of his first combo attacks on the first deer. Shuffling his feet until they caught on fire, he then jumped towards the first and landed a kick to its head. "These feet of mine burn with a passion! _**BLAZE KICK**_!" Damion yelled as he used the attack. The attack combo was strong enough to take it out in one hit. Afterwards, he had put out the fire on his feet before said fire could do any damage to him.

_However, the downside to using combos is that they cannot be used in successive turns. That and certain combos require more turns before another can be used._

The second deer monster attacked by tackling the young man, essentially pushing Damion back.

The young man retaliated by casting 'Fire' spell on the deer. The spell was a fireball that exploded upon impact with the animal. Damion had to throw the 'Fire' spell at the victim as though shooting it from an arm-cannon.

The deer monster responded by swinging around to use its rear legs to kick Damion in the stomach area. Damion's health by now was around three-fifths.

"Time to end this" the young man declared as he gave the finishing blow with another 'Fire' spell. Like before, the spell exploded upon impact with the deer monster. As a result, the monster died.

Victory was Damion's this time around.

Deciding to press forward, the young man ran towards where be believed to be the direction of Misty Lake.

Along the way, however, Damion came across several swarms of insects that seemed to try and block Damion's path.

"**Got you now!**"

Damion looked around for the source of the confident-sounding voice, but soon found his answer when yet another girl clothed in bug-motif appeared. This person had an androgynous-looking appearance to her.

"Are you, perhaps, one of the few men of Gensokyo?" Damion asked the bug-person.

"No, stupid! I'm a girl! Are you blind or something?"

"No, I was double-checking. You had this androgynous feel, and I just had to ask"

"Geez, I've got you trapped and about to feed you to my friends"

"You and what army?"

"Hello… you're surrounded by my army"

This caught Damion off-guard, and realized that she meant the bugs surrounding him.

In response to this, Damion prepared himself for battle. His enemies were two swarms of bugs and the girl who seemed to be commanding them.

To start off the battle, Damion used 'Scan' on the girl. Various information about her became clear to Damion: Her name is Wriggle Nightbug, a firefly insect youkai. Weak to fire and ice magic, but absorbs electric magic. Repels Death, and is immune to confusion status ailment. She, like Damion suspected, manipulates insects as her power. Her stats compared to Damion were below average, meaning Damion had the upper-hand in terms of stats. However, the types of insects that she summons vary in strength and abilities. Her attacks and skills relied heavily on the insects she controls.

"Just what did you to me this time, you damn human?" Wriggle asked defensively.

Damion sighed once again and explained, "Like everyone who asked me that question, I'm going to answer the same thing: I just scanned you to get an idea of what I'm dealing with. Why, what did you think I was scanning?"

Wriggle blushed before answering, "Perverted stuff"

Damion was furious now. "I'm getting sick of everyone saying that! If you're going to call me that, then I'll be more than happy to give you a beat-down with this combo I'm saving for Misty Lake and that wintery hell"

Wriggle took her turn and used it to use a combo move. What her combo attack was to have the first swarm of bugs surround her and act as a barrier. "_**Defend Order!**_" she called out.

The second swarm of bugs made their attack by ramming themselves into Damion. The damage was minimal and almost non-existant.

Damion used his turn to shoot 'Fire' spell at the second swarm. Sadly, the swarm dissipated and dispersed to flee. It was mostly due to the bugs' fear of fire.

"Hey, get back here!" Wriggle yelled to the swarm that fled.

Damion was somewhat disappointed by that.

"_**Attack Order!**_" Wriggle declared. The insect barrier that she set up to protect herself in temporarily dispersed and began attacking Damion individually. Some of the bugs went to bite the young man in places that had exposed skin (Mainly the face), while others rammed themselves into him. After their attack, they returned to Wriggle and went back to being her barrier.

Damion used his turn to use a combo attack of his own (The one he used earlier). He shuffled his feet to set them on fire once again, and jumped towards Wriggle and her barrier. "_These feet of mine burn with a fiery passion. __**BLAZE KICK!**_" Damion called out his attack as he kicked the insect barrier. Like the swarm before it, the 'barrier' of insects dispersed and fled from fear of fire. The attack continued and Damion kicked Wriggle's face.

Wriggle was knocked backward from the attack, and her face suffered a slight burn from the attack.

"Damn it, how dare you scare away my followers!" Wriggle cursed. She then tried to flee.

Damion wasn't about to let her just run away, so he raced to block her escape, and succeeded.

"Guh, you're fast" Wriggle muttered as she realized she's not leaving the fight without more damage.

The young man replied, "You're the one who picked a fight, and now you want to run away? That's very disgraceful to yourself. It makes me think that your power is rather useless"

"How dare you belittle insects!"

"I'm not putting THEM down, I'm putting YOU down for being a coward, fleeing a battle you started" Damion corrected her.

The young man had a point, and there was no way for Wriggle to deny it.

"Shut up! I'll make you feel the terror of insects!" she shouted back before making an unusual whistle. Two swarms of insects rushed to Wriggle's side this turn.

Once again, it was Damion's turn to attack, and he used it to cast 'Fire' on the first swarm of insects. Like before, it dispersed and fled the battle from fear of fire.

Wriggle, like before, called her combo skill, '_**Defend Order!**_" to get the second swarm of insects to surround her like a barrier.

Damion used his turn to cast 'Fire' on the insect barrier, which had the same effect as the other insect swarm before it.

Wriggle used her turn to whistle an ominous tune that summoned two more insect swarms.

"I was hoping to use this skill when I got to Misty Lake, but it seems now is a good opportunity for me to get some practical experience using it" Damion threatened as he started up his new combo attack.

The combo had Damion summon six flame spheres in front of him, and then the flame spheres spun around Damion until it became a barrier of sorts that surrounded and engulfed the young man. Damion rushed towards Wriggle and her two insect swarms, tackling them while charging through them. "_**Flame Rush!**_" Damion declared. The combo attacked all three enemies. Like the insect swarms before, the two supporting insect swarms fled the battle. The attack also hit Wriggle Nightbug for massive damage. Unfortunately, the combo had a cost-to-use price; a large chunk of Damion's health (The attack was VERY strong and attacks all enemies with the bonus of making the user somewhat more battle-ready, but the downside had to be of equal value to the effectiveness of the attack; the price was health loss equivalent to the effectiveness). This left Damion with about half his health left.

Wriggle was down to about a fifth of her maximum health from the attacks Damion used on her. But she knew that trying to flee would only lead to a waste of her turn, and Damion could finish her off with another combo attack. So, she whistled to summon two more insect swarms to her side for her turn.

Damion went next, and got up-and-close with Wriggle, using 'Close Combat' skill. Wriggle, in a desperate attempt to defend herself, replied with a quick combo using both bug swarms to use them as a shield. Unfortunately for her, Damion was faster thanks to the combat-ability boost he got from the 'Flame Rush' combo. The young man was punching, kicking, kneeing, chopping, and using various means of combat on the bug-girl. Eventually, Wriggle fainted, out cold. The insects around her quickly dispersed and fled the area, mostly in fear that their commander was bested, AND fear that Damion would use 'Fire' to burn them all.

The young man took a seat on top of Wriggle, using the defeated girl as a fallen log, to rest. He then began using 'Cure' spells to bring his health back to full.

"_Wriggle Nightbug, huh? Ironic that she came out …_"

Before Damion could even finish that thought, he noticed the sky was getting dark.

"… _Never mind, she actually came out about time as her name probably suggests_"

* * *

><p>Damion began relaxing during his moment of peace. Rather, he began climbing trees to get at some vines. There were many short pieces or medium-length size vines, and he had to tie them together to make a long makeshift rope.<p>

Climbing down from the tree, he picked up the unconscious Wriggle and set her against a tree. Then, using his makeshift rope made of vines, he tied the unconscious girl to the tree, securing it to that she wouldn't escape, and then he gathered large rocks to make a campfire.

After setting things up, he began to turn to a tree nearby and used his 'Fire' spell to burn down only that one tree from its base. Eventually, the tree fell on the ground. Thinking on survival skills, he chopped the tree into several pieces, then chopping the smaller pieces into smaller pieces. Eventually, he made himself a pile of wood for burning.

"_I hope this lasts me until morning_" Damion thought to himself as he placed some of the firewood into the stone circle, then burning the wood with his 'Fire' spell.

After the campfire was set up, Wriggle Nightbug came to.

"Where am I?" she asked somewhat disorientedly. However, before she could get an idea of what was happening, she realized that she was tied up in front of a campfire.

"Oh, you're awake" Damion casually said to Wriggle as he noticed her waking up from the beating he gave her a while ago.

"LET ME GO! YOU DAMN HUMAN, LET ME GO!" Wriggle screamed loudly as she struggled to free herself from the makeshift rope made of vines.

Damion then approached and slapped her across the face.

"Calm the fuck down, Wriggle! I was kind enough not to roast you over that fire, and I wanted to properly apologize for beating you up, even though you attacked me in the first place" Damion yelled to her.

"J-j-just what are you going to do to me, you pervert?" Wriggle asked in fear.

Damion sighed and gave her a straight answer, "I just wanted to talk this over, ask for your help, and maybe do a favor in return for your help"

"I won't help you"

"That's fine. I WAS planning to ask you what you ate, hunt for it, and then feed you, but I guess I'll be hunting food for myself tonight"

"You cruel monster!"

"If I was as cruel as you think, I wouldn't have offered to feed you tonight, OR I would've hung you over the fire buck-naked and cooking you for my dinner, OR just outright killed you by cutting up your body and feeding them to the _real_ monsters I'm actually fighting. As it stands right now, I'm showing you kindness and mercy by letting you live, offering you food, and a chance to talk through a misunderstanding" Damion retorted.

"Why would you, a human, want to talk over a misunderstanding with me, a youkai, that had full intention of eating you?" Wriggle asked in total confusion.

"Humans aren't as bad as you think… wait, let me rephrase that. Not _**ALL**_ humans are bad. You probably just came across the bad ones"

Damion had a point this time; most of the humans that Wriggle encountered either hated bugs, or her. Realizing what he meant, Wriggle stopped to consider the facts that Damion was pointing out. Then, she realized he was right.

"Okay then, let me ask you this honestly: Do you hate bugs?" Wriggle asked, blushing a little.

Damion noticed the change in tone from Wriggle's voice.

"_Finally opening up to someone huh?_" Damion thought to himself.

"Depends on the bug or insect. I don't mind them, per se, but I hate the buzzing they do in people's ears. Other than that, I see bugs and insects as a necessary part of sustaining an ecosystem"

"Um, can you translate that last part into simple terms?"

"It means that without them, the 'lifestyle' of the forest would be 'in chaos' or lead to the destruction and extinction of forest life"

"I see, so you understand the importance of insects. That's rare for a human" Wriggle admitted, blushing all the while.

Damion decided to change the subject. "My name is Damion. I already know your name from that 'Scan' spell when we fought, but I only got your combat data. Getting back to what I was going to ask, what do you eat?"

"Wait, eat? Hmm… I usually eat leaves off trees, drink the dew from grass and leaves, and 'vegetables' as humans call them" Wriggle answered.

"Alright, I can't guarantee anything, but I'll see what I can find"

"Oh, before you go, can you untie me?"

"Sorry, I don't trust you enough to let you free; I'm still worried that you might attack me during the night" Damion answered her before heading off into the surrounding area to gather food.

About a half-hour later, Damion returned with various types of leaves, a handful of non-poisonous mushrooms, and a dead deer monster.

"I don't know what kind of leaves you eat, so I picked out several kinds from trees. Also, I don't know if you eat mushrooms, but it was difficult to find the non-poisonous and edible types" Damion said to Wriggle. He then set the leaves down in front of Wriggle and had her identify the leaves for him.

"The leaves in the first pile are a favorite of some of my insect friends. The second pile is my favorite type. The third pile you got are rare leaves from trees that bloom every few years. And the last pile of leaves are highly nutritious to insects, though most young insects just don't like eating them similar to how human children don't like to eat vegetables" Wriggle explained to Damion.

"I see. I thought all the leaves looked the same"

"About the mushrooms, the mushrooms that we insects eat, I guess, have the same effects on insects as they do on humans"

"I guess I learned something about insects and what they eat"

"The deer, however, is not really something I enjoy eating just after being killed" Wriggle added, noticing the last item that Damion brought with him.

"Oh, who says I'm eating the deer raw? Humans usually cook meats over a fire of some kind, or use microwaves to kill harmful bacteria that may poison humans"

"Microwaves?"

"Oh, sorry. It's a culture difference. Microwaves are one type of technology that use micro-waves to heat food. It's just technology from the human world" Damion explained.

"I apologize then. I thought you were from the human village who came to exterminate me" Wriggle admitted honestly.

"I don't know where the human village is, but I hope to see that place for myself one day; after finishing my errand for Reimu though"

Unfortunately, before either of them could continue their conversation, Wriggle's stomach started growling.

Picking up the leaves in the second pile, he fed them to Wriggle like a parent feeding their baby. This was embarrassing for Wriggle, being fed by a human, but she decided to enjoy the moment to get to know a human that understood her passion for insects.

Then, Damion took apart the dead deer monster's body and placed them on sticks over the campfire.

"Um, what was life like for you before you came to Gensokyo?" Wriggle asked suddenly.

Damion looked down and began to explain his story.

"Like I told a few people before, I came from a world where I was created by a god to be a contestant for his tournament to see which human would be the successor to his throne and powers. I gained friends from this 'game' the god set up, and fought with them until the end of the tournament"

Damion went silent for a moment.

"What happened then?"

"At the end of the tournament, I was ordered to finish off the friends I made, who were also contestants in the tournament"

"That's horrible"

"That's not even part of what makes it horrible, it was a Heinz Dilemma"

"A what dilemma?"

"Simply put, it's a lose-lose situation with no hidden option, and whatever choice you make ends up hurting you in some way. That kind of situation happened to me after I learned the fate of what would happen if I became the successor to the throne, or let one of my friends finish me off and repeat the 'game' with rules of their own. Fortunately, there was a loophole in the prize for winning the tournament; it was to have a wish granted before the world blew up. I chose to abandon my friends, taking the prize and wishing for a power and escaping from the world before it blew up.

Wriggle was now in tears after hearing this. "I'm sorry to hear that had happened to you"

Damion, surprisingly, patted Wriggle's head and tried his best to console her.

"If I could, I would've gone to hell where Death is to talk to my friends and apologize for betraying them and explaining everything that would've happened if any of them became the successor to the god. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way for me to ever see them again"

"That's so sad"

Thinking it was enough to talk about his depressing past, he changed the topic to about Wriggle, "Enough about this depressing topic, tell me about yourself, Wriggle"

The firefly youkai calmed down after shedding some tears from hearing Damion's story, and began talking about herself.

The young man learned a lot about her personally than he did from his 'Scan' spell.

While listening to Wriggle, he took off the deer monster mean from the campfire and offered a piece of the cooked meat to Wriggle. She took a bite and found the cooked meat delicious.

Eventually, after getting to know one another Damion grew tired and so did Wriggle. They soon fell asleep.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Damion woke up first. He cleaned up the mess from the campfire and then untied Wriggle Nightbug gently so to avoid waking her.<p>

That didn't work as she woke up while Damion was untying her.

"Ah, you're awake" Damion said to her after noticing her awakening.

"Oh, good morning" she said after yawning.

"You earned my trust for now, Wriggle. Can I ask that you help me out?"

Just then, Wriggle noticed that Damion was untying the vines to let her go.

"Depends on what you need help with, Damion"

"I need to get back to Misty Lake to head to the Scarlet Devil Mansion" Damion explained rather sternly.

Wriggle was taken aback by the request. "Say WHAT! Are you out of your mind? You're practically walking towards a death trap by going to that mansion!"

"I'm only going to be there to investigate a rumor about Marisa Kirisame, hope she's there, and then get the hell out before that Remilia bitch notices I'm in her mansion"

Wriggle was now stunned at this. "For your sake, I hope you actually know what you're up against; Remilia is…"

"Yeah I know, she's a vampire who claims to be a descendant of Dracula, but there's no proof to prove or disprove that claim"

"Oh, okay. Are you some kind of vampire slayer or something?"

"No, I'm just a human who knows some magic spells and combos"

Unfortunately, before the conversation could go any further, both Damion's and Wriggle's stomachs growled at the same time.

"Damn it … food" Damion grunted.

"Hang on, let me see if there is anything edible for us" Wriggle offered. She then ran deeper into the forest to scout for food.

About five minutes later, she came back with a handful of various leaves and non-poisonous mushrooms.

"I don't know what you like to eat, so I just brought back the same kind of mushrooms that you got from last night" Wriggle said as she began eating the leaves she brought for herself.

Damion took some of the mushrooms and made sure they weren't poisonous. He recalled survival classes back in his home world, and remembered about the different types of mushrooms that people can eat and the types that are deadly to humans. The kinds that Wriggle found for them were that of the edible, non-poisonous type.

"It ain't much for breakfast, but I hope it lasts us until we find something more filling" the young man said as he ate his portion of breakfast.

The two ate in silence together, enjoying each other's company all the while. Rarely does Wriggle find someone who understands her passion for insects, and even rarer does she find someone who is willing to get to know her. Knowing this, Wriggle became quite fond of Damion for those two reasons, and a few more reasons.

"I-i-if you, perhaps, choose to… stay in Gensokyo… would you… mind, perhaps… hang out with me… and get to know my friends?" Wriggle asked embarrassedly.

"I could come find you to hang out with and play games with, but I've got my errands as top-priorities right now. There's been this talk about the monsters showing up in Gensokyo, and they're raising hell everywhere"

Wriggle looked down in disappointment upon hearing Damion's answer.

Damion noticed her reaction and quickly answered, "I never said I wouldn't hang out with you! I meant to say that I need to take care of the current problem that's plaguing Gensokyo"

"Oh, sorry. I misunderstood what you said" Wriggle admitted slightly embarrassed.

"Alright, as for what I wanted to ask, would you help me get to Misty Lake? I can probably manage from there unless you want to tag along with me in my travels around Gensokyo" Damion asked her, returning to the subject at hand.

"Oh, uh… yeah. I'll help you get there, but… me and my friends aren't good with the cold" Wriggle answered.

"You'd be a big help just getting me there. Truth be told, I would've been lost for days in this forest before I would find Misty Lake"

"Geez, is that why you took me hostage in the first place!"

"HELL NO! I restrained you so you wouldn't attack me in the middle of the night. Becoming friends with you was out of honesty and kindness with no hidden goals; befriending you to make a friend was my only intention last night"

Wriggle calmed down now, and sighed a breath of relief.

"Speaking of friend, we could've become better friends if we weren't so different; I'm an insect youkai, and you're a human"

"What do you mean? Isn't it strange for humans and youkai to be friends?"

"You're missing the point I was getting at! Are you dense or something?"

"Actually, yes. I don't know what else you mean other than being friends"

"Geez, I meant by being more than just friends"

There was silence between them for a minute. Wriggle, upon realizing what she said, turned bright red from embarrassment and turned to face the other way.

Damion, on the other hand, was in shock from what he heard.

"Wh-wh-wh-wh-what-what-WHAT!" Damion screamed.

"I know, laugh if you want, but I was being honest about my feelings" Wriggle said somewhat sadly.

Another moment of silence between the two of them. Then, Damion broke the silence with his answer to the indirect confession.

"I wish I could return your feelings, but I need to remember more about myself first. Second, I need to help take care of the monster rampage in Gensokyo. If there isn't anything else after those, then I might try and improve our relationship. But right now, I need to think about other things" Damion answered, putting his arms on her shoulders.

"You must think I'm an idiot huh?"

"NEVER! I would never look down upon my friends or laugh at their misfortune or embarrassing moments"

*Click*

Upon realizing what that sound effect was, they looked around for the source of the click. Wriggle noticed it first, and directed Damion behind him at the sky.

When he looked, he saw Aya again, this time taking pictures of him and Wriggle.

"Oh, don't mind me" Aya said as though accidentally imposing on a romantic moment.

"Actually, I DO mind you taking pictures of us right now, Aya. What do you want this time?" Damion asked the crow tengu sternly.

Aya flew down and landed next to the two of them. She then handed Damion a copy of the Bunbunmaru newspaper from her bag of newspapers.

"Here, it's today's Bunbunmaru newspaper. I was about to distribute copies to all of Gensokyo, but I want you to be the first to read it"

The headlines read, "_Newcomer to Gensokyo_". The article read something like this: "_Newcomer, Damion, takes tour of Youkai Mountain during first day in Gensokyo. Rumors say he's after the lives of the Scarlet Sisters to become a hero to humans of the Human Village_"

"You got MOST of the details accurate, but putting in 'rumors' of being a vampire slayer will never, EVER, be in my list of things to do in Gensokyo" Damion angrily said to the newsreporter.

"Oh, and you better not publish that picture of us, or we'll hunt you down and kill you!" Wriggle threatened Aya.

"Oh, you're challenging me?"

"WRIGGLE! I already scanned her before, and I might have a hard time hitting her. How do you plan to fight her if you can't last against me?" Damion pointed out to her.

This caught Wriggle off guard, and she apologized.

"I'm sorry; it's just that…"

"Romance between a human and a youkai is looked down upon, am I right?" Damion assumed.

"No, not exactly looked down upon, but would get weird looks from humans and youkai alike" Aya corrected.

"Oh, I thought it was taboo or something" Damion added.

"No, not exactly weird or taboo; it's just that the idea for humans and youkai to fall in love with one another isn't very often seen or heard of. The only example of such a case where that happened was with Rinnosuke's parents" Aya explained.

"Rinnosuke?"

"Oh, I think you and him will get along well since you're both guys"

"That's nice, but you said something about Rinnosuke's parents being a case where a human and youkai fell in love?"

"Yeah, I don't know all the details, but his parents were similar to you and Wriggle right now, but went for full-blown romance" Aya teased.

Wriggle was blushing madly at the thought of her and Damion getting all intimate and lovey-dovey. Damion, on the other hand, wasn't taking the tease too nicely.

"I don't appreciate being teased like that, Aya. Right now, I'm preparing to go to Scarlet Mansion, check out a rumor, and then get the hell out of there as soon as I can. Did you forget that?" Damion asked sternly to Aya.

"No, I haven't. Speaking of Scarlet Mansion, why are you still here instead of there?"

Damion recapped his near-death experience from the cold, being saved by Momiji, and creating some combos that might help him survive the wintery hell Cirno placed on the Misty Lake.

"Oh my, I guess you're pretty tough and have some extraordinary luck to survive that, be saved by Momiji, and then fall in love with a youkai that most find disgusting" Aya replied to Damion's adventure thus far.

"Watch it! I haven't fallen in love yet… I'm just not ready for romance yet"

This statement came as a surprise to Aya, but Wriggle was even more surprised at the statement.

"Anyway, change the article a bit to be more accurate, LEAVE OUT MY FRIENDSHIP WITH WRIGGLE FROM YOUR ARTICLES, and maybe add some parodies of real articles in the 'funnies' section. Doing this might help make the newspaper more enjoyable to whoever reads your newspaper" Damion pointed out, changing the subject.

"A parody section? What's that?"

Damion sighed and explained what parodies are, "They're basically mocking serious articles in humorous ways meant to entertain than be serious. For example, I do an interview with Reimu in a serious manner. Then, I decide to, one day, make a parody of that and change the answers to the interview questions to something so silly that it becomes nonsense, yet funny at the same time. A good example of such parodies would be mockumentaries or movies that make fun of other movies"

"Movies? Mockumentaries?"

"Sorry, culture differences again. Movies are videos, or animated images, designed to entertain or teach the audience something Mockumentaries are a type of movie that parody documentaries. Documentaries are movies meant to teach the audience about something"

"How do movies work?" Aya asked again.

Damion held out the newspaper he got from her, and pointed at the first picture he saw. "Suppose I want to make a movie out of this article. I would first have to take a reference, like this picture, and animate parts of the picture to make it seem like the picture came to life. Usually, movies are captured on film using movie cameras"

"Oh, you mean like the camera I use?"

"That's a picture camera. Movie cameras are different in functionality. They capture whatever the camera is focused on until the video is finished capturing your footage and…" Damion explained what and how movie cameras are used.

After a detailed explanation, Aya became fascinated with the idea, and told Damion he should see Nitori Kawashiro.

"Nitori… Kawashiro? Who's that?"

"One of the few mechanics of Gensokyo. She's a kappa, and a shy one at that, especially around humans. Usually kappas are making their own medicines or growing cucumbers, but she's different in that she likes machines and mechanics. I could introduce you to her, but I've got to get going now" Aya ended the conversation and then flew out of the area as fast as she appeared.

It was Damion and Wriggle alone again.

"Nitori is a friend of mine, so it would be easy for me to arrange for her to meet you" Wriggle said suddenly, changing the subject.

"That would be nice, but I'm just thinking about where to find Marisa. Reimu's probably worrying about me being very late; new to Gensokyo, and only been taught the bare minimum of this world, and her duty as shrine maiden to help 'outsiders' get used to Gensokyo… I'd guess she's worried by now" Damion answered.

"Oh yeah, you needed to get to Scarlet Mansion huh? Let's get going" she said, leading the young man into the forest.

"Yeah, I'll repay this favor one day, Wriggle" Damion said to her while being lead towards Misty Lake.

* * *

><p>END OF CHAPTER<p> 


	5. The STRONGEST fairy

DISCLAIMER: Touhou and its characters belong to ZUN, I only own Damion and my OCs.

Author's notes: I'm experimenting with how to incorporate Danmaku into the fic as part of an RPG version of the official game's version. The idea this time is to have spell cards act like a multi-turn combo that locks the user in that combo until the spell card breaks from damage to the user, or after many turns pass then the spell card will be stored away and ready to be used again. I'm just experimenting with how to make Danmaku work in an RPG style, so if it doesn't work, feel free to send in ideas on how to make it work. One thing though, Damion does NOT know how Danmaku works, so he'll learn how to battle danmaku style RPG later in the fic.

* * *

><p>Damion and Wriggle arrived at Misty Lake after a while of travelling. Specifically, they stopped in the area that started to show signs of a snowy hell.<p>

"I'm sorry I can't take you any further because of the cold, but I hope this helps you" Wriggle said to Damion.

Damion patted her head. "Thanks, this was a big-enough help. I'll repay this favor one day, but I need to take care of some urgent business right now. I expect to be in and out of the mansion quickly"

Wriggle giggled at the praise and returned to the forest.

"_Now then, let's dance!_"

Damion charged like a wild bull into the winter wonderland that Cirno created around Misty Lake.

Visibility was bad, but good enough for Damion to see enough ahead of him to know what to expect.

"Uwoooooooaaaarrgghh!" the young man roared as he rushed around Misty Lake. While doing so, he also ran using his 'Flame Rush' combo to attack any monsters he came across. He was cloaked in his sphere of flame. It was as if inside a hamster ball, bowling down enemies.

Most of the monsters in the area were alerted to Damion's roar and rushed to confront the young man. The majority of the monsters, though, were snowman patrols. Upon contact with the flaming Damion, they instantly melted in defeat.

One by one, the patrols melted as they tried to attack Damion. However, the damage Damion was taking from his own combo was now beginning to take a toll on his health.

"_If I can clear a few more of those bastards… then…_" Damion thought to himself as he continued racing around and rushing the snowmen patrols with his combo attack.

This was working quite well as he was taking down a lot of them in a short amount of time.

Eventually, the combo stopped altogether, and Damion realized it a minute after running around with the cold. Soon, he had to retreat back into the forest area to escape from the pursuing snowmen patrols.

Hiding behind some trees outside the snowy boundaries, Damion rested to catch his breath and recover his health lost from the combo. Then, from the snowmen patrols he took out, he gained a level and became slightly stronger out of experience.

Some of the snowmen patrols that did follow the young man outside the Misty Lake snowy boundaries checked the forest area for the assailant (Damion). Getting an idea, Damion hastily climbed a tree to hide in the leaves.

Fortunately for him, he found peaches in the tree he was hiding in. "_Not much for breakfast, but I hope these do_" Damion thought to himself as he ate the fruit.

Looking down, he saw the snowmen patrols running by the tree without even looking up. Damion figured that they were simple-minded and only created to search ahead of them.

Once the pursuing snowmen patrols were out of sight and in the woods, Damion decided it was time for him to make his move. Grabbing some of the peaches from the tree for later, he pocketed them for later and then jumped down from the tree.

Being as quiet as he could be, he snuck back into the wintery area of Misty Lake.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, when he got to the lake, he was greeted by an ice fairy that was not happy to see him. This ice fairy had ice shards for wings, and was about as big as a human's arm length. Realizing he was caught, Damion prepared himself for battle.<p>

"You idiot! How dare you take away my toys and melt them!" The ice fairy shouted to the young man.

"Who's calling who an idiot when all I'm doing to trying to get to the Scarlet Mansion without any intention of hurting you!" Damion shouted back.

"I AM THE STRONGEST! That's why I'm calling you an idiot!" the ice fairy shouted back.

"Alright, just prove to me how strong you REALLY are in a fight" Damion declared, preparing himself for a fight.

* * *

><p>## Fight against Cirno ##<p>

Damion started out by using 'Scan' on the fairy. Various information became clear to him: This ice fairy was named Cirno. She claims to be the strongest, but that's just her ego talking. She obviously absorbs ice magic, but is weak to fire. She repels Death magic. Her stats in comparison to Damion were about average, meaning they were on equal terms stat-wise. She likes to freeze frogs and play with said frozen frogs for a hobby, but will occasionally get yelled at by a goddess for doing so. She may be full of herself, but she has a hard time understanding how logic problems and intelligent questions work; meaning she's not that bright. Being around her naturally causes anyone and anything to become cold or frozen. Despite her flaws, she's quite childish in nature.

Like every important female that Damion scanned, Cirno blushed bright red and yelled, "PERVERT!"

"Here we go again…"

"What do you mean 'again', you pervert!"

"It means that whenever I try to get an idea of who I'm up against, I'm always being called a pervert for just getting combat data!" Damion shouted back.

"Still, it's rude of you to do that, pervert!"

"Stop calling me that! What did you think I was looking at anyway?"

"Perverted stuff"

Damion sighed and took a deep breath to calm himself down before anything would happen.

"Let's just fight so I can put an end to this snowy hell" Damion ordered her.

Cirno took her turn to cast 'blizzard' spell onto Damion. What happened was that she quick-froze the air around her to form ice shards. She then shot them at her target (Damion).

Damion wasn't fast enough to dodge all the ice shards, so some of the hit the young man in the legs and arms. His arms started to form ice and freeze.

Damion's turn came up and he decided to use a combo. Shuffling his feet agains the snowy ground until he reached dead grass, he began to build up friction to heat his feet. Eventually, his feet caught fire. "**My feet burn with a fiery passion, '**_**BLAZE KICK!**_**'**" Damion called his attack. Jumping towards the ice fairy, he gave her a speedy kick to her stomach area. The damage was moderate to her, despite her weakness to fire; about a sixth of her health went down from the attack she took.

"Damn it, I'm the STRONGEST!" Cirno yelled as she began her turn. She took out a spell card from her pocket and called it out loud, "_Freeze Spell:__** MINUS K!**_"

The air around Cirno became more frigid and cold. The cold was beginning to affect Damion and reduce his speel. Various ice shards started forming around the ice fairy and each one shot itself towards Damion. The ice shards exploded upon impact with Damion, drastically decreasing his body temperature all the while.

"Hahahaha! Now DIE!" Cirno yelled maniacally as the danmaku spell rapidly hit the young man.

Eventually the onslaught came to a stop temporarily. Damion lost about a tenth of his health from the assault.

Damion began his counterattack by using 'Fire' spell on himself. He essentially shot a fireball above him for it to come back down and hit the young man. The damage he took from his own spell was about five percent of his maximum health.

"Why would you attack yourself, stupid?" Cirno condescendingly asked the young man.

"Unlike you, who is used to the cold, we humans freeze easily in the cold. Don't you know anything about biology?" Damion answered back sternly.

"Biology?" Cirno asked, stupefied.

It took a moment before Cirno realized it was a simple question.

"Idiot! Stop asking me those questions!" she yelled suddenly, giving up on the question she was asked.

She then used her turn to go for another round of danmaku. More ice shards were formed around Cirno, and they shot themselves at Damion. Like before, the ice shards exploded and drastically decreased the victim's body temperature.

"_Good, it's time_" Damion thought to himself.

"Time to show you the power that bested your playthings so easily, 'Strongest' one" Damion taunted as he prepared his combo attack again.

Six flames surrounded Damion, and began circling the user until it became like a barrier around the young man. Damion then charged at the ice fairy at full speed. He ran into her several times, dealing damage with each ram into her. As an added bonus to dealing damage, Damion's combat stats temporarily increased. However, the recoil to Damion increased with each tackle into Cirno.

Cirno lost about two fifths of her maximum health while Damion took about a fifth of his maximum health in recoil. Fortunately, the attack broke Cirno's spell card and destroyed it.

"Ack! My spell card! You'll pay for that!" Cirno shouted as she began her turn.

The ice fairy was furious at the loss of her spell card, but she pressed on with the battle anyway. As such, she used her turn to cast 'Blizzara' spell on him.

Like 'Blizzard' spell, 'Blizzara' was an upgraded version of the former spell; ice shards had edges and were sharper, bigger in size, and colder than before. The difference was that 'Blizzara' spell had the ice shards explode AROUND the target, freezing the air around him, and then the ice shards reform to attack the chilled enemy. The damage to Damion from this spell was approximately two sixths of Damion's health.

"Damn it, even more cold?" Damion cursed aloud.

"Heh, let's see you survive THAT, you idiot!" Cirno smirked, thinking she won.

Damion, despite the cold, bathed himself in a glow of green healing magic; 'Cure' spell, to bring his health back up to almost seven tenths of his max health.

"No fair, using a spell to heal yourself!" Cirno complained.

The ice fairy used her turn to pull out yet another spell card. "_Freeze Sign:__** PERFECT FREEZE!**_" she called out. Some of her health was restored upon using the spell card; about a fifth of her health was cured. In addition to the health increase, she began shooting various color orbs of ice across the battlefield. Damion was surrounded by the colorful ice spheres. Then, Cirno froze her ice spheres in place. Cirno then began shooting several weak 'Blizzard' spells at Damion. While that was happening, the frozen ice spheres that surrounded Damion began moving around at random.

"**Oh my, aren't you in a pinch, young man**"

Damion looked around for the source of the voice. Cirno looked around as well, but Damion had a hunch he knew who was talking to him.

He was right; it was Yukari Yakumo. She was halfway out of a gap created above the battlefield.

"Go away, you old hag! I'll beat him and prove I'm the strongest. Then, after beating him, I'll take on that vampire, Remilia, and prove I'm the STRONGEST!" Cirno declared to Yukari.

Cirno's spell card was still in effect, and Damion had to be careful of his surroundings so he doesn't get hit by too many of the frozen colorful ice spheres.

"I would advise you avoid the danmaku spheres from spell cards, Damion. They hurt like hell!" Yukari advised Damion.

"The hell are you talking about? I'm more worried about dying of hypothermia than whatever this 'Danmaku' thing is" Damion shot back.

Yukari scoffed at the thought. "Quite foolish, battling youkai without any spell cards to counter theirs"

Damion was now multitasking several things at once: dodging Cirno's spell card ice spheres, contemplating what Yukari meant by spell cards, and focusing on trying to maintain his own body temperature. Despite the cold, Damion was still battle-capable.

"Someone is going to have to explain spell card and 'Danmaku' to me as soon as I beat up Cirno" Damion practically yelled at both of them.

Then, Cirno's spell card assault came to a stop this turn.

Damion saw this as a chance to fight back. He, once again, summoned six flames around him. The flames circled around quickly until it formed a barrier around the young man. Then, Damion charged at Cirno at full speed. He ran right through her using his flame-coated body as an attack. Once again, Damion's combat stats were temporarily raised, but he lost a fair bit of health as well.

Cirno was down to a third of her health while Damion was down to half health.

Fortunately, that attack also broke Cirno's second spell card.

"I'm not done yet!" Cirno yelled to Damion.

Then, Yukari added her two cents to the battle thus far. "Not bad, handling yourself without spell cards or use of Danmaku"

Damion ignored her and prepared himself for Cirno's counterattack.

Cirno used her turn to cast 'Blizzara' on Damion again. Ice shards formed around her and shot themselves at the young man. The ice shards exploded in the area around him, creating a much colder atmosphere around him. Then, the ice shards reformed and attacked Damion by jamming themselves into his skin.

Damion used his turn to cast 'Cure' on himself. Bathing himself in green healing magic, his wounds began healing quickly.

"No fair, using that spell again!" Cirno called out.

The ice fairy began her turn to shoot another volley of 'Blizzara' spell at the young man. Fortunately, Damion managed to dodge the spell before the first part could surround him in the ice circle.

Yukari Yakumo, on the other hand, was watching the battle between the young man and the ice fairy come to its climax soon.

Damion cast 'Fire' on Cirno, shooting a fireball at her. She was quick enough to dodge the spell, and avoided damage altogether.

"_Freeze Sign: __**Icicle Fall!**_" Cirno shouted as she pulled out a third spell card. One tenth of Cirno's health was restored upon using the spell card.

Several 'Blizzara' spells branched out from behind Cirno and attacked forward like a wall closing in to trap the victim. The ice spells went through and passed by Damion. Then another wave of the same combo went by to encircle the young man. There was yet a third wave, and it approached Damion similar to how the first two waves went by. Then, there was a fourth and final wave. Instead of approaching Damion, it positioned itself in front of the young man.

"Checkmate, you pervert!" Cirno declared as she used her spell card power to send all four 'Blizzara' spells from the spell card into Damion.

Unfortunately for Damion, he was encased in a block of ice.

During Damion's turn, six flames started circling around the young man, and the ice melted as the flame also acted to bring Damion's body temperature back to normal.

"_**FLAME RUSH!**_" Damion roared as he charged at Cirno once again. Like before, he slammed himself into the ice fairy repeatedly at lightning-fast speed. This was now an all-out battle between fire and ice. Between Damion's struggle to stay warm in Cirno's environment of arctic-like surrounding, and the battle between fire and ice spells, the battle was starting to come to a close right now. Yukari Yakumo was also feeling the tension as the human and ice fairy were fighting.

Like before, the damage dealt to Cirno was strong enough to break her spell card. This brought Cirno's health down to a fifth of her maximum health. The damage to Damion in recoil was also a fifth of his maximum health. In addition to the recoil, Damion's combat stats increased slightly.

"This is getting interesting; you took down three of Cirno's spell cards without using danmaku or using magic bullets. I'm impressed, human" Yukari complimented the young man somewhat amusedly.

"I'm not done yet! I AM THE STRONGEST!" Cirno declared once again. This time, she pulled out another spell card and called it to use: "Hail_ Sign:__** HAILSTORM!**_" Like the other spell cards before her, it restores some of her health, approximately one tenth of her maximum health. This brought Cirno's health up to a third of her maximum health.

The spell card cast so many 'Blizzard' spells that it seemed like it was going to affect the weather completely. Rather, there were many, MANY 'Blizzard' spells prepared from the spell card that Cirno took to higher air to use the spell card. Then, she shot down her pre-prepared 'Blizzard' spells down in quick succession to create a blizzard of the spell with the same name.

Damion had a hard time enduring the spell card attacks. Rather, he was not holding up against the tactic that well. As such, he lost about a tenth of his health.

Damion used his turn to cast 'Cure' on himself and restore some health. His health went from a quarter of max health to nine-twentieths (45%).

Cirno's spell card onslaught continued from before. More pre-prepared 'Blizzard' spells fell from the sky in a blizzard-like fashion. Like before, Damion endured the attacks, taking the full force of the spell card and surviving. Though, his body temperature fell from taking the blizzard attacks, and thus lowering his speed. The damage to the young man was approximately a tenth of his maximum health.

Damion, once again, cast 'Cure' on himself to bring his health back up to a little over half his maximum health.

Cirno's spell card was still in effect and working to attack the young man. Once again, Damion was bombarded by a myriad of 'Blizzard' spells raining down on him in an actual blizzard style of attack. The damage to the young man was approximately a tenth of his maximum health.

Damion figured he had enough health to make a counterattack with his trusted combo. "_**FLAME RUSH!**_" Damion roared as he cloaked himself in a barrier of fire, once again, and jumping up towards the ice fairy and ramming into her with his head.

The attack took out a fifth of her maximum health once again. Like the other times Damion used the combo, he gained a small boost to his combat stats at the cost of a large chunk of his health. Cirno was down to one tenth (10%) of her health. The attack also broke her spell card.

"Impressive, three spell cards down and you don't know how to use danmaku? You're an interesting human, Damion" Yukari added, this time more sincere as she watched the battle from the safety of her gap. Of course, she was talking directly to the young man.

"_Let me focus, youkai of the gap_" Damion thought to himself.

Cirno used her turn to cast 'Blizzara' on Damion. She quick-froze several ice shards and fired them at the young man. Upon getting within range of the target, the ice shards exploded, leaving behind very cold air surrounding the young man. The purpose of this first part was to lower the body temperature of the target. Then came the second part of 'Blizzara' spell: ice shards reformed in the area surrounding Damion, and rammed themselves into the young man.

Damion's health decreased by 5% from being hit by the spell.

The young man responded to the attack by using 'Cure' on himself to regain some health. His health spiked from a fifth of his maximum health up to two fifths (40%).

"I'm not done yet, human. TAKE THIS!" Cirno yelled, pulling out another spell card. "_Snow Sign:__** DIAMOND BLIZZARD!**_"

Unlike the spell cards before, this one had to be her deadliest thus far. Instead of 'Blizzard' or 'Blizzara', the spell card summoned 'Blizzaga' spells. Even worse was how the third level ice spell acted: In a large area, the area quick froze to temperatures that could potentially kill anything with hypothermia. Then, the area would be frozen into an ice block and then shattered. That's just the 'Blizzaga' spell by itself.

The spell card cast several 'Blizzaga' spells at random, the spell would appear anywhere and quick-freeze anything that gets caught in the ice blocks that form in the space it would attack.

"Try and survive THIS! I am the STRONGEST!" Cirno challenged.

Then, Yukari's interest in the battle spiked. This had to be the climax of the battle to see how the young man would survive Cirno's deadliest spell card. "How will you survive the terror of the cold, human?" Yukari Yakumo teased the young man in amusement.

Now the odds were against Damion; the temperature of the battlefield was rapidly falling, Cirno's spell card practically made her go berserk with her deadliest attack so far (Blizzaga). To make things worse, said deadliest spell will attack at random in random spots in the battlefield.

Ice began forming in the spot Damion was standing in, and he noticed this at the last second before being encased in the ice block.

"_That was too close_" Damion thought to himself as he nearly got himself trapped in what could've potentially had been a death trap. Unfortunately, his avoidance with the death trap was short lived, as ice began to form in front of, behind, in the same spot, and on the sides of Damion. The young man's only method of escaping was to jump high enough to get out of the spell's range of effect. Damion noticed this, just before it was too late, and jumped high enough to avoid being trapped in the spell. Thankfully, Damion was able to dodge all the spells this turn.

"_Please let this attack finish off Cirno for good_" Damion prayed in his mind as he started up his combo attack once again. "_**FLAME RUSH!**_" Damion declared. Cloaking his body in a barrier of flames again, he jumped up towards Cirno and rammed into her with his body. Cirno was unable to dodge the attack in time, and ended up taking the full force of the combo attack.

This time, Cirno's last spell card and health dropped to zero fighting capability. Damion's health decreased from the combo's recoil, reducing his health from (45%) to a quarter of his maximum health (25%).

Thanks to the battle, Damion went up two levels (Most of the experience he gained came from taking out the spell cards Cirno used). As a result of the battle, Damion became slightly stronger out of experience. Also, thanks to being in the cold for long enough, Damion learned how to use 'Blizzard' by observing and taking hits from the 'Blizzard' spells.

## Victory against Cirno ##

* * *

><p>"Oh my, you actually won without spell cards or using danmaku" Yukari responded to the feat the young man pulled off. In fact, she was slightly impressed.<p>

In addition to the victory, the atmosphere in the area began to warm up back to normal, the ice-based monsters melted due to the environment heating up, and Cirno was knocked unconscious.

Dropping to the ground, he sat down to take a rest and recover from the cold battle against the ice fairy. He was panting from the battle he just won, and grabbed the small ice fairy.

Just as the area was warming up, a familiar face appeared from the forest area; Wriggle.

She was running away from the deer monsters that attacked her, and even her insect friends were way overpowered by strength of the monsters.

"_I wish I could help her, but I'm out of mana and health_" Damion thought to himself as he noticed Wriggle fleeing.

"Tired already from the battle against Cirno?" Yukari asked the young man teasingly.

"Just give me… a minute… to catch my breath" Damion panted between fragments of the statement.

Yukari humored his request and waited until he was rested enough.

After a while, Damion was recovered enough to stand up (He still was holding onto Cirno though).

"Alright, you're rested and recovered from the fight. I congratulate you for being one of the first to fight a danmaku battle WITHOUT using danmaku or spell cards. Something like that doesn't happen very often" Yukari said to Damion.

"Can you please explain to me what the hell Danmaku and spell cards are?"

Yukari began her explanation of how the system worked; it's a game of sorts where two people, usually youkai, shoot bullets at one another until the opponent gives in and surrenders. There's also a rule about how to end fights: if one contestant uses all their spell cards and said spell cards are defeated, then the battle immediately comes to an end regardless of the loser's remaining combat abilities. Spell cards gave the user a variety of benefits when used. Those benefits could range from anything between a buff in the user's stats, to health being restored, or debuffs towards the opponent, or any other effects that come with the spell card being used. Though it seems that with the monsters coming from the Hakurei Border being the type to use melee instead of Danmaku, the system has only recently been changed slightly so that danmaku spell cards last for a while, then stop temporarily to give the opponent a chance to counterattack the danmaku spell card. The change went into effect just as Damion arrived.

"In other words, Danmaku is when you shoot your opponents, while dodging their bullets?" Damion asked.

"That's correct, young man. Shall I teach you how to use Danmaku?"

"No, I think I'll stick with good old fashion melee and magic until this monster problem settles down"

Before the conversation could go any further, Cirno regained consciousness.

"What happened?" She asked in confusion and disorientation.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Your lack of strategy cost you the battle, Cirno" Damion answered the ice fairy.

At that moment, Cirno realized the situation she was in; being held by the person who defeated her.

"LET ME GO, YOU PERVERT!" Cirno shouted, struggling to escape Damion's grasp.

"If I was a pervert, I would've done things that would've humiliated you" Damion shouted back to her.

Yukari had an evil grin on her face. "So, now that you bested Cirno, what are you going to make her do? In danmaku battles, the terms of a fair fight are put into effect in favor of the winner"

Damion was confused. "What do you mean?"

"It means that since no terms were made, the battle doesn't have any significance or rules that the loser has to stick to"

"I'm saved" Cirno sighed in relief.

Damion, on the other hand, had other ideas.

"If we had set the terms before the battle, then I would've made one term clear; disperse the wintery hell you set up"

"One thing though, that term was going to happen whether it was officially declared or not. Cirno created the 'wintery hell' for her own amusement, and defeating her was the key to undoing that problem" Yukari added.

"Now I fell like an idiot for hearing this AFTER learning about how danmaku works" Damion muttered quietly.

"That's right, you idiot. Unhand me right now!" Cirno demanded.

Surprisingly, Damion complied and set her down gently.

"I will defeat you another day, human! Just you wait!" Cirno declared before flying off into the lake area.

Yukari just smiled and giggled lightly.

Damion noticed the change in Yukari's behavior and asked about it.

"What's so funny?" he asked sternly.

"It's just that Cirno has taken a liking to you in her own way"

"Huh? Her, liking me? I don't see how that's possible. She declared me her enemy just before flying off into the lake"

Yukari then straightened to be more serious.

"Cirno may act like that, but I know her and many youkai better than they think they have others know them. She's full of pride, but I can see past that and I saw that she doesn't know how to reach out to you to become friends" Yukari lectured him.

Damion took a moment to digest the information. When he realized what Yukari meant by Cirno wanting to become friends, he was surprised.

The feeling of surprise didn't last long as Wriggle ran by with yet another deer monster chasing her.

"Damn it, Wriggle!" Damion cursed as he rushed to help his friend.

"_Did he befriend Wriggle?_" Yukari thought to herself as she retreated into the gap she made and opened another gap in the sky above the forest area where Damion was headed.

* * *

><p>"Lead him here to me and I'll take care of those monsters!" Damion yelled ahead to Wriggle.<p>

While running, Wriggle heard Damion and acknowledged his plan.

With a change in perspective, Wriggle jumped up into a tree and bounced off in the opposite direction, flying past her pursuers (Two deer monsters). The two deer monsters skidded to a stop and turned around to chase Wriggle.

Wriggle ran until she was behind Damion, and hid behind said person.

Then, the two pursuers skidded to a stop in front of Damion.

"If you have your friends with you, now would be a good time to bring them out" Damion muttered to Wriggle.

The bug-girl nodded and whistled to summon her insect friends.

*Wriggle became a (GUEST) fighter for Damion's team*

"Time for me to try out this spell I learned from defeating her" Damion said aloud as he prepared to use his new spell, 'Blizzard'.

Similar to how Cirno cast the spell, Damion began to use the spell in the same manner. Using his knowledge of magic, he used his magic to quick-freeze the air around him to form ice shards.

"Wait, I know that style of casting 'Blizzard'!"Wriggle commented as she saw Damion use the spell.

Then, with a thrust of his palms, Damion fired the ice shards at the deer monsters. Unfortunately, the spell was only able to attack one target.

Once the spell was over, it was Wriggle's turn to attack. She used a combo attack with the first insect swarm she summoned. "_**Attack Order!**_" Wriggle called out. Her combo attack had her command the first insect swarm to attack, bite, ram into, and generally go all-out against the deer monster Damion attacked.

Fortunately, the duo managed to take out the first deer monster together.

It was the second deer monster's turn to attack, and it charged at Wriggle Nightbug. Once in close range, it jumped and gave her a kick to the stomach area. Wriggle was pushed back a little after putting up her guard.

Damion's turn came next, and he used it to try out a combo with his newly acquired spell.

In his left arm, he summoned a ball of darkness, and in his right was ice. Then, Damion smashed the two elements together. The result was the two spells growing and growing until it became a subspace of some kind.

"_**WINTER OF THE VOID!**_" Damion called out, using his new spell combo.

The darkness subspace was terrifying enough by itself, but then the temperature of the victim rapidly decreased, ice began to form on the victim's body and vital body parts. Ice shards began forming and flying around the subspace around the target, IN ADDITION to the darkness beginning to shrink. The subspace surrounding the victim began to shrink and shrink until it imploded.

The deer monster that once stood there lied dead, frozen, and covered in darkness.

"That combo… was so COOL!" Wriggle cheered.

Damion then realized that the combo drained a lot of mana out of Damion, roughly a quarter of his maximum mana. There was one other side-effect of using the combo: Damion's speed stat temporarily decreased for the battle.

"Damn it, these combos are way too unstable with somewhat unexpected side-effects" Damion muttered.

"Oh my, so you and Wriggle Nightbug are friends?" Yukari asked the two, popping out of a gap above them.

"Yukari! What are you doing here!" Wriggle asked the gap youkai out of fear.

Damion sighed. "Look, would you mind not butting into my life every five minutes, Yukari? I'm kind of busy with a few things at the same time here and there"

"This is definitely most unexpected; you have a thing for Wriggle, who is often seen as disgusting and unpleasant to be around, aren't you, Damion?" Yukari teased.

Wriggle was taken by surprise by the tease, but said tease didn't go over well with the young man. "Yukari Yakumo. I respectfully ask that you refrain from making wild speculations and spreading false information like that" Damion asked her somewhat irritatedly.

"Aw, that's no fun" Yukari teasingly answered.

"How would you like it if I called you the same thing that Cirno girl called you? What was it… old hag?" Damion shot back with his own sense of teasing.

"I really should teach you some manners against those who are more powerful than you"

"I think you realize by now this stalemate we're in, Yukari. You don't like being called an 'old hag', and I don't like being called a pervert or being called intimate with people"

"Guh, you have a point"

"Well then, I propose we just, say, leave each other alone until there's something REALLY IMPORTANT that needs to be discussed, like important people dying or a village being attacked"

"Proposition accepted"

With that, Yukari retreated into her gap and sealed said gap behind her.

Wriggle was somewhat affected by Yukari's tease.

"Now that things are settled down here, it's time for me to figure out how to cross the lake and get to that mansion" Damion muttered as he walked towards Misty Lake again.

"Wait, how do you plan to cross the lake? I haven't seen you able to fly, and I'm kind of worried" Wriggle voiced her concern.

"I'll probably make a raft made of trees or just swim across" Damion muttered aloud.

"Do you need help finding sturdy trees?" Wriggle asked the young man.

"That'd be a big help"

Nodding, Wriggle and Damion began working together to cut down trees with their respective abilities; Wriggle asked her insect friends to help gnaw at or eat away at the base of trees to bring them down. Damion, using his new spell, froze some of the base of some of the trees, and began attacking the frozen spots. This would've sounded like crazy for Damion to do, but he knows that attacking something that is frozen has a chance of being shattered. Applying that knowledge to trees, that means that he can break apart the base of the tree without the need to cut it.

Once Wriggle managed to fell one tree, she had her insect friends eat a large chunk of the tree to lighten the weight of the tree. Wriggle wasn't that physically strong, so it would've been difficult for her to move her tree to Damion.

Damion, on the other hand, already used his 'Blizzard' spell to carefully freeze unnecessary parts of the tree to shape it into a boat.

Damion was busy working on carving the boat with his ice spell, freezing the parts and then breaking the ice, shattering the unnecessary parts off. Then, he had to focus on the inside of the boat.

"Are two trees going to be enough?" Wriggle asked him.

"Depends on if you want to tag along into the Scarlet Mansion, Wriggle" Damion shot back to her.

"EHHHH!" Wriggle screamed. She thought Damion would need two trees to make a boat, but now it's become clear to Wriggle.

Damion sighed as he froze out the inside of his tree to carve out a hollow for him to rest in. Using his fist to break the ice, he shattered the unnecessary parts off the tree and completed making his boat.

"Um, you know… I could just fly over the lake and meet you there" Wriggle admitted suddenly.

Damion was surprised.

"Now I feel dumb for offering to make you a boat to travel across" Damion muttered.

"I'm sorry I forgot to mention it, but some people of Gensokyo know how to fly" Wriggle apologized.

"It's okay; I blame my ignorance and lack of knowledge of this world" Damion answered back honestly.

He then turned the makeshift boat upside down to let the ice shards fall out. Turning the boat back right-side up again, he inspected the inside of the boat to make sure it was sturdy enough to keep the water out.

"Alright, time to head to that mansion" Damion said after making final inspections to the boat.

Damion and Wriggle hauled the makeshift boat to the lake, and set it in the water.

"I'll see you there, Damion" Wriggle said to the young man before flying across the lake.

Giving the boat a quick push, he gave it a boost before jumping in and using his hands as oars to push the boat across the lake.

* * *

><p>END OF CHAPTER<p>

Author's notes:

Cut me some slack on the danmaku, spell card, and bullet thing I somehow incorporated and worked on to fit the RPG style battle. It ain't perfect, but it's just an idea at the time on how to make the battles a lot more interesting.


End file.
